Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Quotes

Democracy must live as it thinks and think as it lives

Elections alone will never be enough to ensure good governance.

Free elections are only one part of democracy. Constraint on the power of government and the rule of law and the institutions of democracy are just as important.

Our democracy only works when the official opposition does its job of opposing the government of the day and offers a clear alternative vision for our country, including giving a voice to the voiceless.

Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.

Democracy is not theater - it determines life and death!

Similarly, gender-equality, supremacy of law, political participation, civil society, and transparency are among the indispensable elements that are the imperatives of democratization.

It's not just parliament that requires radical modernisation. It's our democratic processes.

The view that we hold in Iraq now is this - that democracy is associated with elections. I believe that elections are possible.

I'm against unanswerable concentrations of power, whether that be government or private industry or religious figures - anybody who is not accountable to the larger social climate or society for the power they wield, that concerns me. I'm very pro-democracy.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers.

In a democracy, the one thing that cannot be done is to destroy its trust, its hope, its idealism.

One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.

The advanced levels which the democratic world has attained at the end of lengthy processes may have created the perception in the region that democracy is a distant concept; this perception can be addressed.

Democracy has always been in crisis: democracy is all about practicing the art of bearable dissatisfaction. In democratic societies, people often complain about their leaders and their institutions. The gap between the ideal democracy and the existing one cannot be bridged.

I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable.

Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listens.

Democracy is not elections. Democracy includes elections.

Democracy is more than just having free elections. It's having political structures.

Democratic government consists of listening, deciding, persuading.

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Democracies stand on several key pillars: Free and fair elections, human rights, the rule of law, and a free untrammeled media. Until 2016, an open media was seen as a resilient democratic pillar that supported the others.

I'm not for seizing power, I'm for justice in the country and for democratic elections.