Lewis D. Eigen Quotes

What the world of the twenty-first century calls democracy is in fact the fusion of two distinct political traditions. One is liberty—that is individual freedom. The other is popular sovereignty: rule by the people.

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence democracy, and the other tyranny.

No democracy pretends to be a tyranny. Most tyrannies pretend they are democracies. Democracy remains the definition of political legitimacy.

It is an essential tenet of our whole representative form of government, the idea that there should not be some tyranny which makes it so nobody can even have a chance to vote.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Democracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers.

The United States is dangerously close to becoming a democracy instead of a republic.

Democracy is not an easy form of government, because it is never final; it is a living, changing organism, with a continuous shifting and adjusting of balance between individual freedom and general order.

Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Democracy doesn't mean electing a dictator every five years.

Democracy is politics.

Democracy is a relatively new form of government.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few

We had a revolution 2 years ago, and we see a people moving from a completely authoritarian system into a democracy. They don’t know how democracy works. They don’t know the ingredients of a democracy.

People mistake majoritarianism for democracy.

In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

Democracy is a good client.

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

The principle of democracy is all about delegation of power by the vast majority of citizens through a few chosen representatives chosen on merit and competence.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.

The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.

One is actually the democracy here, you know, people are, people assume that this election means that there is democracy in Pakistan. There is no democracy.