Joseph Stalin Quotes

Elected representatives are so embedded in the basic notion of what constitutes a democratic nation that it has become indistinguishable from any other form of democratic governance.

We're going to make sure that the people who run for office and get elected are the ones who are going to work for the American people.

There are elements of democracy in votes here and there in America. But in the actual structure of the government, we're a representative republic.

The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter,to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens and greater sphere of country over which the latter may be extended.

Since James Madison day (and long before), there have been constant struggles over "democratic governance".

That's why we have senators and members of congress from every state. That's why we have elections. Because the people speak and there are different viewpoints out there. It doesn't mean just because we're members of one party or another, doesn't mean that we behave monolithically. It means that we will express our view points.

Elections by the state legislatures will be better than those by the people.

The wisdom and discretion of Congress ... are the restraints on which the people must often rely solely, in all representative governments

No one can deny that the Americans are more democratic than the English; yet the government of England feels more directly than that of the United States the force of public opinion. Each has its check on the action of the popular will. In the United States the check is found in narrowing and lengthening the channels by which that will reaches the governing powers; in England it consists of an hereditary crown and an hereditary nobility, which can restrain but cannot thwart the people.

Whereas the constitution of … Holland is in its principles a popular representation, it is necessary that the right of the people be duly ascertained; that the members of the States be rendered responsible to them for their conduct and be precluded from taking any decisive step without their consent …

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.

We need to be constantly reminded that this is a representative democracy, and we need to be in tune to what people are talking about.

I do not want to abandon representative democracy. I want to see it balanced by popular sovereignty, especially the variety known as deliberative democracy.

The best guarantee against the abuse of power consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections.

The American people are too well schooled in the duty and practice of submitting to the will of the majority to permit any serious uneasiness on that account

The trouble with democracy is that 50 percent of the voters are below average.

One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be erratic.

Many Americans do not realize that we could institute proportional representation for most elections in the U.S. without amending the Constitution. In helping to educate the public about the potential for voting system reform, CVD can play a central role in a pro-democracy movement right here in America!

We Americans think we enjoy self-government. We have all the trappings of self-government, like elections. But in reality, we have gradually lost many of our rights to govern ourselves. We have the form of self-government, but only some of the substance. We are, in a sense, a nation run by a handful of judges who often enforce, not the law, but their personal opinions.

You can't always say what's popular and you ought to go with it. I think that's why the founders were concerned about direct democracy. That's why we have a republic and that's why we have representatives who who are supposed to look at the issues and to look out for the next generation as well.

I don't want to get too nuanced, but we have the electoral college in the United States and that means we don't have direct democracy.

In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he [the president] is the representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as congress is. But can he, in the nature [of] things, know the wants of the people, as well as three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a congress?

I’m not intellectually convinced that one-man, one-vote is the best. We practise it because that’s what the British bequeathed us

Democracy is an awful way to run a country, but it's the best system we have.

We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I can tell you quite honestly.