David Frum Quotes

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

Decisions taken by the most democratic institutions in the world are very often wrong.

Logically, in a society ostensibly grounded on representative government, it would seem reasonable that a majority of the people in a State would elect a majority of that State’s legislators.

The government must give men and women without power a real say over what happens to them, and the means of engaging in a participative, invigorated and living democracy.

There are ways to pursue political change. In a democracy, it's through the ballot box. There are other ways, and many democracies have many different systems of democracy.

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power.

The people must know that from this day on, we want their opinions.

Accountability and democratic choice, I deeply believe, are guaranteed by rigorous scrutiny only.

Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself.

The Election Assistance Commission represents a major, unprecedented commitment from the federal government to sustained freedom and vibrant democracy. I am humbled by the prospect of being one its charter members.

Increased town size hurts real democracy in two ways. First… it dramatically reduces the percentage of citizens who attend town meetings. Second, town size increases the number of citizens who attend, which dramatically reduces the percentage of these attendees who participate.”

The government is just us.

We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons…. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this … work, that is its affair.

Democracy, in brief, requires government by parties because the citizens are too numerous, too ill-informed and too preoccupied to come together spontaneously to choose the policies and leaders they wish to prevail. Political machinery has to be worked. The parties work it.

In a democracy, in a functioning democracy, what would be happening is that popular organizations, unions, political groupings, others would be developing their programs, putting them forth, insisting that their representatives implement those programs.

Poetry can't give us the laws and institutions and representatives, the antidotes we need: only public activism by massive numbers of citizens can do that.

I am committed to growing participation in the political process and doing it the right way.

We need to restore our democracy to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I believe that when it comes to the creation of Sankalp Patra, India in its history has never seen such participation of people.

I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the leadership.

You put these politicians in office, but then you've got to tell them what you want them to do. And it's intimidating to most people. I was intimidated by it. I mean, calling my senator or writing my senator? I'm like, what do I say? What do I do? But we're showing people that the political process is actually less intimidating than we think.

Politics is a process, and there has to be a continual conversation between those who govern and those who give their consent to be governed.

This is the democratic process at work, What you're seeing with this process is the Iraqi people embracing American-style democracy.

Democracy is a life, and involves continual struggle.

If you give up on democracy, you might as well give up on everything.