Michael Ignatieff Quotes

Only two countries in this hemisphere are not democratic, but many countries in both Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, are really fragile democracies.

There is a real and evident problem of democracy in Georgia, and this was the core reason of my entrance into politics. We have no rule of law. It's absolutely absent.

The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.

There's no checklist of how democracies fail because they fail in different ways. Some of them fail because they break up and civil war breaks out... Often they fail because someone is elected to power who doesn't respect the rules of the democracy.

Before the military coup in Chile, we had the idea that military coups happen in Banana Republics, somewhere in Central America. It would never happen in Chile. Chile was such a solid democracy. And when it happened, it had brutal characteristics.

The introduction of political pluralism often quickly led to bad results.

Ukraine is facing a serious threat of isolation as some local political forces want to put an end to democracy and democratic reforms in the country

In the past decade, nearly a dozen elected Latin American presidents have been forced from office.

Strongmen? You have to have strong people to rule. South America is a rough place.

Nigeria first entered...'the dismal tunnel' on January 15, 1966, when the military overthrew all the institutions of a democratically elected government... If there is light at the end of this tunnel, it is imperceptible to anyone not paid to see it.

Politics is a dirty game. We have our rules in boxing. In politics, no rules. Especially a young democracy like Ukraine. It's more like MMA.

Democracy is dead in the Maldives.

Maduro distanced himself from democracy. He deconstructed the entire judiciary and blocked parliamentary processes.

When Captain Moussa Dadis Camara came to power, too many thought he would hold to his promise to stand down, introduce democratic elections and restore the rule of law.

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is.

We have a war dictator who was not elected, he snuck in. so he punishes people that threaten him in any way, or even say something he doesn't like. It has no resemblance to democracy.

By the late 1970s, repression and economic chaos were causing increasing unrest throughout Latin America. Army strongmen were forced to cede power in Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

I'm very disappointed by the mature-democracy countries. I was ousted by a coup d'etat.

It's not a democracy here, it's the Middle East.

Fascism in Uruguay did not begin just with the military coup of 1973, but years before, even when there was still a government with a constitution and parliament.

Democracies are often run by ethnically based groups prepared to do terrible things to other ethnic groups... or they can be very corrupt, dominated by elites...

This is probably my last free statement through our news media, where the radio and television are already under the heel of the ruling political party of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. One would have thought radio and television were enough as propaganda tools.

No truly sophisticated proponent of repression would be stupid enough to shatter the facade of democratic institutions.

The overthrow of a democratically elected government is a very serious crime and those involved — great or small — must face the consequences. Otherwise we will continue to see a repetition of coups and other politically motivated criminal activity.

A transition from party to personal government has preceded every failure of a republic.