Ivan Krastev Quotes

Americans like to say we're fighting for democracy, and yet young Americans have come to the view that democracy doesn't deliver.

Then you get to the last half of the 20th century, Americans are getting very skeptical about their leaders and their institutions, and another place that is affected is parties and conventions.

I think people are rapidly losing confidence in the political class, and I don't blame them.

Today’s festering unhappiness with politics is a product of the plummeting faith in politicians and political institutions that pollsters have tracked since the 1970s and the escalating spiral of cynicism and despair that has accompanied it. Intense partisanship among politicians, vicious political battles in the media, and nasty electoral campaigns coexist with extensive citizen apathy and pathetically low voter ­turnout.

There's a total separation between the federal government and the people. So running for president was an attempt on my part to get people to care enough to go vote. But people just don't bother. And that's why it's not working.

In Latin America, specialists and polling organisations have, for some time, observed that the extension of formal democracy was accompanied by an increasing disillusionment about democracy and a lack of faith in democratic institutions.

The political parties have lost their loyalties.

People hate politicians. And I can understand why.

You can almost see voters nodding their heads at home: The public's faith in politicians and political institutions has been on a steep and dangerous decline for decades, because elected leaders fail to deliver.

A political convention is not a place where you can come away with any trace of faith in human nature.

Public perception of the Westminster arena, with all its posturings, does little to engender a sense of voter belief.

The danger of democracy has always been the danger of an electorate seized by passivity.

A growing number of people in this country do not believe that it makes a real difference who is elected President of the United States.

It's so deeply disturbing to me that half of the eligible voters don't vote in this country. We talk about how divided the country is. The truth is, we don't even know. We just know what the half that voted thought.

Remember, I'm the guy who didn't want the referendum - I wouldn't have had it if I'd been prime minister. But you have to respect how people voted because this was partly about political alienation, so if the response to political alienation is to ignore it, that's a recipe for more political alienation.

More dangerous than voting for change... is that people no longer vote because they have lost trust not only in governments but in democracy.

People don't trust party leaders.

People are sick of the false choice between the established political parties who take voters for granted.

No one went to the ballot box to vote for something worse than the status quo.

I couldn't believe that Donald Trump won. I couldn't believe that we elected an orangutan to front the country.

Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.

We live in a representative democracy, characterized by free and fair elections and peaceful transfers of power. After most elections, roughly half of Americans are thrilled with the results; the other half are profoundly disappointed.

It's a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.

One of the things I endeavor to remind people of consistently when I am asked to speak to groups around the country is to consider the possibility that we are led by a pack of idiots. This is not out of any animus toward our leadership class, but borne out of experience.

Millions of people feel ignored by the political establishment.