Paul Kagame Quotes

The value of democracy lies in the fact that good or bad government has its roots in the localities where people know each other and where they account for their actions to their neighbors.

Decentralization is always a passion of those in opposition

All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization.

I think it is a very important point for India to create a bureaucracy that lives on the ground and gets its stimulus from how life is on the ground.

Government tends to believe in top-down solutions, and government fears of bottom-up solutions.

I have always insisted on the need for local self-government for Russia, but I never opposed this model to Western democracy. On the contrary, I have tried to convince my fellow citizens by citing the examples of highly effective local self-government systems in Switzerland and New England, both of which I saw first-hand.

We are entering an era in which national government, instead of directing, enables powerful regional and local initiatives to work, where Britain becomes as it should be - a Britain of nations and regions.

I don't want to be the president of the United States. I do want to work with the governors across the country to make the states more pivotal, more powerful, as they should be.

My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.

I do not believe that the best ideas come from Washington.

Now technology gives you a chance to help organize. You don't have to wait for either the inefficiency or the corruption. You don't have to wait for government. You can actually self-organize and build institutions bottom up.

I believe the role of the government is too big. Society must be more decentralized.

Whatever changes a common man wants to bring in the country, he can bring it through the process of voting.

One of my philosophies is that citizens are the mayor... so we have citizens play an integral role in making policies and implementing them.

Solutions and ideas should come from the bottom up, generated by local communities and not mandated from Washington.

No more top-down politics with Westminster dictating what's right for every community. We must all be partners in designing a better future for our country.

I think it is time for a radical federalism in this country, where people trust innovation coming from the local level and ramp that up.

It goes to local authorities and even to members of Parliament so that individual citizens almost become people who want to sit and wait for their member of Parliament to come and solve the problem. Now that won't take you anywhere. And if you follow it, you will see that it feeds corruption in the country.

Local self-government…is the life-blood of liberty.

All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.

When the panchayat raj is established, public opinion will do what violence can never do.

I think that decisions should rest in the hands of the states. I'm a federalist.

The founders did not want population centers to dictate to the rest of the country. They had already seen that happen in Europe in their day, and they had seen the kind of people that gravitate toward various areas.

We are changing the way we govern ourselves - not just in the way we work in New Delhi, but also in the way we work together with state governments, districts and cities. Because we know, as you do, that our vision may be formed in Delhi, but our success will be determined by state capitals.

Countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices and opinions of all their citizens can be heard.