Mohammed VI of Morocco Quotes

Islamic societies may produce their own flavor of democracy, just as Christian concepts were reinterpreted to permit democracy over a long period of time

Western-style multi-party democracy is possible but not suitable for Africa.

Iraqis have held elections and have recently put together their government, all encouraging developments.

The Iraqi elections were an important first step.

According to this view, democracy is a product of western culture, and it cannot be applied to the Middle East which has a different cultural, religious, sociological and historical background.

Well, one thing that has happened is they have had a presidential election in Egypt which has represented progress. Now, we were not happy with everything that happened with the parliamentary elections, and it was not exactly a perfect presidential election in Egypt.

Democracy in the Middle East has to be front-loaded. You have to have elections first and then try and build democratic institutions. You are not going to have the dictators and clerics of the Middle East allow you to build up democratic institutions slowly.

Establishing a stable democracy is a two stage process. First you get rid of the old regime, then you build a durable democratic replacement. Because the first stage is dramatic, many people think the game is over when the dictator is gone. But the second stage is more difficult. There are many examples of broad coalitions coming together to oust dictators but relatively few of them stayed together and agreed on what a new regime should look like.

The critical thing about Western democracy is the fact that you usually have a transition of power without bloodshed. That is an enormous advantage. But still, democracy as we know it was only invented recently in the West, historical speaking. It did not really work in ancient Rome. It functioned for less than 200 years in ancient Athens.

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

If the people of the Middle East are not sure what democracy means, let them look to Israel.

There is no future for Tunisia without consensus among political parties and members of civil society.

One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world - and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East - is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn't there. It has to do with history.

Maybe the future of Syria will not be a presidential system where one person will have all the power, so, the discussion about who should and should not rule Syria will become irrelevant. Let the Syrian people decide.

Our system of government, our form of democracy, would not work for China, just like China's system would not work for us.

In South America, there is no more room for alternatives to democracy.

Israel is one of the greatest and most modern democracies on the planet.

In Asia, democracy has been less advanced than elsewhere. And many of these countries haven't done too badly.

Venezuela has immense talents and resources, and we can help rebuild our democracy.

President Trump's leadership has been very important to this effort of restoring democracy to Venezuela.

Nigeria shed the last of a succession of brutal military dictatorships in 1997 and adopted a democratic form of government only in 1999. Our elections of 2003, 2007, and 2011 were complicated and fraught with tension, but each one has shown remarkable progress.

Turkey initiated true multiparty elections in 1950 to join NATO. As a requirement of its membership, NATO can and should demand that Turkey honor its commitment to the alliance's democratic norms.

We think about democracy, and that's the word that Americans love to use, 'democracy,' and that's how we characterize our system. But if democracy just means going to vote, it's pretty meaningless. Russia has democracy in that sense. Most authoritarian regimes have democracy in that sense.

Shrouded by the 'dodgy dossier,' which warped opaque intelligence, none of the stated war aims in Iraq spoke to the British national interest. Illusory dreams of bringing Western-style democracy to the Middle East were punctured by failures of planning and strategy, as catalogued before the Chilcot Inquiry.

I never took a political science course.