Terry Sanford Quotes

In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices should be and the better, in theory, our democracy should be.

In our form of democracy the expression of the popular will can be effected only through the instrumentality of political parties.

We can not have free government without elections. And if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have conquered or ruined us.

Democracy cannot be imagined without Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, and they cannot be imagined without MPs and MLAs.

In a democratic age, you can't buck demography - except through civil war.

Freedom to vote is valuable primarily as a means to safeguard other freedoms.

The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.

Although elections are not perfect tools for democracy, they reinforce the relationship between the people and their leaders, empowering citizens to remove and replace their governments in a peaceful and orderly manner. The only basis for a peaceful society is providing people with the opportunity to express their opinions and their will, and elections are instrumental in doing so.

The question of primary elections is one of government for the people and by the people. Under our system of government by political parties, two elements, equal in importance, are involved in the exercise of suffrage; one, the making of the ballot; the other, the casting of the ballot. The right to cast the ballot is regarded as sacred. The right to make the ballot is equally sacred. No man would be willing to delegate his power to vote the ballot at general elections. No man shall be compelled to delegate his power to make his ballot.

A democratic crisis can only be settled by more democracy.

The function of a parliamentary democracy, under universal suffrage, historically considered, is to expose wealth-privilege to the attacks of the people.

You change laws by changing lawmakers.

Public participation in the process of government is the essence of democracy.

Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.

There must be some limits on the form of democracy. It can’t be winner take all.

The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.

There is nothing in our government that the ballot cannot remove or amend. It can make and unmake presidents and congresses and courts.... It can sweep over trusts, syndicates, corporations, monopolies and every other development of the money power.

We elect these people not to represent their parties but to represent us.

One of the cornerstones of our democracy is the peaceful transition of power.

We are a democracy, and we get the leaders we deserve because we elect them.

Only those who vote politicians into power have the right to depose them.

Italy is a free country. Its voters decide freely.

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 must remember, elections are short-term efforts. Revolutions are long-term projects.

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.