Daniel Hannan Quotes

People now do not want a constitution framed for them by their representatives—they want to pass on each section of it themselves.

The opponents of direct legislation and the recall, however they may phrase their opposition, in reality believe the people cannot be trusted.

One of the chief principles for which I have stood is the genuine rule of the people. I hope that the people may be given the chance, through direct primaries, to express their preference as to who shall be the nominee.

I actually don't believe in governance by referendum. I believe that we have a democracy, that we elect people to make decisions.

One lesson of the vote for Brexit was that citizens were fed up being treated as bystanders. One of the gains of Leave was the flourishing of a sense of agency and self-determination that it afforded to many.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

You don't need lawyers making laws. Regular citizens can make laws. Let the lawyers work under the laws.

I would like to state that my personal opinions are that the people of every country should decide by themselves what kind of government they want.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

I often say that Arizonans should decide what's best for Arizona.

On economic policy, my support of smaller government, lower taxes and economic reform is consistent with the mainstream of the Republican Party in the United States and with many Democrats as well.

A town meeting is a legislature of citizens, for citizens, and by citizens. The fact that each citizen of the town is also a legislator separates the New England town meeting from all other forms of democracy.

the only vehicle through which we can get a clear-cut and unequivocal decision of the people.]

Polling can undermine the ability of officials to lay out, debate, analyze, and implement their plans. By turning to instant [electronic] polls we would eliminate the captain and the officers and leave every shipboard decision to the passengers.

[Urging a referendum:] The issue of private ownership of land is too critical a decision to be left to the government.

I’m not in favor of referendums, and I will never put one before the British people.

If we could, somehow, get a vote of the people of Tennessee and have it result properly, it would be worth more to us than a battle gained. How long before we can get such a vote?

As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good.

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.

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

Under the French system, you have to take into consideration that every five years, the president is directly elected by the people. He's the one that has the legitimacy.

I believe in decentralized democracy.

I have always said that I believe in the people's right to vote on an issue.

A referendum is almost always a device by which governments get the voters to endorse what they wanted to do all along.

I do not want to abandon representative democracy. I want to see it balanced by popular sovereignty, especially the variety known as deliberative democracy.