Timur Kuran Quotes

Our democracy is designed to speak truth to power.

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

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

The difference between a democracy and other forms of government is not that in a democracy bad things do not happen. The difference is that in a democracy something will be done about it and someone will be held to account.

Self government is the hardest thing that people can do other than fighting a civil war.

Democracy is about aggregating the collective power of citizens to speak in their behalf.

We are not the consumers of democracy, we are its proprietors.

It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Authoritarian regimes in countries with weak, uninformed, or repressed civil societies will be less susceptible to transparency’s pressures.

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

I wholeheartedly support the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a democratic, free and just society where the rule of law prevails without corruption or government violence directed against citizens.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

No one in government should ever think that the citizens they work for can't or won't scrutinize their actions.

We all learn in school that the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government must check and balance each other. But other non state institutions must participate in this important system of checks and balances as well. These checking institutions include the academy, the media, religious institutions and NGOs.

The value of government to the people it serves is in direct relationship to the interest citizens themselves display in the affairs of state.

Representative government demands an ongoing conversation between legislators and constituents.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Freedom under law is hard work. If rulers cannot be trusted with arbitrary power, it is up to citizens to raise their voices at injustice.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it ...

They have to have some dividends out of democracy.

Democracy is more than just election day.

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