David Keith McCurdy Quotes

Democracy is not imperialism… Imposing democracy is an oxymoron ….You can’t have democracy instantly.

Forcing some countries to accept democracy is something that should not be done.

The Americans' position is clear: we promote democracy.

We have to implant democracies where there are now dictatorships.

I think, as a general matter, clearly, the United States globally supports the development of democracy and the democratic yearnings of all people.

I think that there is a limit on how far you can export democracy.

The Muslim world needs democracy. It wants democracy. But it should be real democracy and not just democracy by name only... Democracy has done some good things. It has saved humanity from despots and dictators who act like gods. The details should be left to the people. Let them decide for themselves

If my goal were to spread democracy, Iraq would be the last country that I would use as a demonstration.

No idea holds greater sway in the minds of educated Americans that the belief that it is possible to democratize governments anytime and anywhere under any circumstances .

It is important to remember there still exist other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign countries still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them..

In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

We believe democracy cannot be imposed from outside in any society. Democracy is the expression of a sovereign people.

Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.

When Bush says democracy, I often wonder what he's referring to.

I don't think it's the job of the United States to build democracies from whole cloth. That's Wilsonianism to me of the most crazy kind.

I think democracy is a universal idea and I think letting people rule themselves happens to be something that serves America and America’s interests.

Resistance to absolutism is characteristic of democratic progress.

If you have an election no mater how free, if you do not have a government that respects people’s rights, you don’t have a democracy.

Is military occupation likely to be the midwife of democracy?

American interests dictate that we teach other peoples to govern themselves.

Not all countries are ready for it [democracy].

We can not want Democracy more than they [the Iraqis] do and expect to succeed.

The United States supports the idea that every people should have the right to make a free choice as to the kind of government they want.

Once confined to a handful of wealthy countries, it [democracy] became, in a short period of time, the most popular political system in the world. In 1900, only 10 countries were democracies. By mid-century, the number had increased to 30…. By 2005 fully 119 of the world’s 190 countries had become democracies.