James Madison Quotes

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?

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.

The effect of a representative democracy is to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of the nation.

Representative government demands an ongoing conversation between legislators and constituents.

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

Are the governors such exceptionally gifted men as to enable them … to represent the masses and act in the interests of all men better than all men would be able to act for themselves?

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

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 …

A deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be decided by public opinion.

My big idea is that democracy can only work properly if you have truly representative people at the table.

I don't support direct democracy because I want a life, and that means I want to select people who work for me who do that sort of work for me.

We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights and especially that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient.

Under my plan, the state will be there to carry out the will of the people, not to dictate to them or to force them to do its will.

Lincoln's reference to government of the people, by the people, for the people is a generally satisfactory definition of democracy. I say generally because when it comes to fair and workable details, democracy fails to completely meet the criteria enunciated by Lincoln by a rather wide margin.

The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn't represent the people. It controls them.

Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy.

I think that the voters should choose the elected officials, not the elected officials choose the voters.

If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require.

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

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.

With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people.

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

Everybody has a say, everybody has a voice, because everyone that comes to the House had about 750,000 people they're representing. And you want those voices heard.

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.

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.