Bashir Assad Quotes

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

A much better course would be a gradual development of democracy, not through general elections, but rather through civil society and the strengthening of local institutions.

It's great that we're bringing democracy to Iraq. I can't wait to see how we do it! What are we gonna do, give them our civics textbooks?

Well, I would say that we've got to redefine democracy, that we have been stuck in concepts of representative democracy, that we believe that it's getting other people to do things for us that we progress.

The government must give men and women without power a real say over what happens to them, and the means of engaging in a participative, invigorated and living democracy.

We have to implant democracies where there are now dictatorships.

Our political system needs changing. It needs to move away from personalities and patronage to a system of party programs and consultation with the people.

There's much more we can be doing in Parliament, we could be giving more power back to people at local government level, through local referendums.

The people must know that from this day on, we want their opinions.

Accountability and democratic choice, I deeply believe, are guaranteed by rigorous scrutiny only.

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.

We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

I have not met, in Afghanistan, in even the most remote community, anybody who does not want a say in who governs them. Most remote community, I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

History indicates that indiscriminately copying Western political systems is a blind alley for China.

We keep looking at democratization as an event—like the fall of the Berlin Wall—but it’s actually a process.

Among the foremost benefits of free government is that education of the intelligence and of the sentiments which is carried down to the very lowest ranks of the people when they are called to take a part in acts which directly affect the great interests of their country.

Democracy requires that those who bear the consequences of decisions have enough knowledge to hold the decision-makers accountable.

The direct primary is the salvation of American politics. It vests responsibility where it belongs—in the people.

Self government cannot work if the people do not know what their rulers are doing and why.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs.

We can have more democracy and openness and still be efficient.

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.