Elinor Ostrom Quotes

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.

But as important as the job to be done by government in the neighborhoods, the people must also be involved.

Democracy, in any active sense, begins and ends in communities small enough for their members to meet face to face.

what I love about city government is that the citizens can create whatever kind of city they're willing to build.

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.

The White House is not where power comes from in this country. The cities and the local communities of this nation are prepared to save Washington - and not vice versa.

The rise of civic society is not a negation of politics, but marks an opportunity for the involvement of the people.

I'm always trying to invite citizens to participate in the process of public decision-making.

Democracy works when people claim it as their own

As for being a voice in politics, I feel whether you are famous or not, busy or not, it's incumbent upon every citizen to participate in this government in any way we can.

As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.

I am often reminded that the wellspring of Vermont liberty flows from Main Street, not State Street.

The cooperation of government at its different levels is important and can only be achieved as long as the people of Chicago are directly involved in our efforts and supportive of our goals.

The good news, though, is that I find in my political travels that people, as regular citizens, are more interested than ever in getting together and having discussions. They want to hear about other viewpoints that differ entirely from what the administration is putting out.

You have citizens who don't understand how government works and they're kind of soured on it. All they do is criticize. They have no idea that they can make things happen.

I liked the give-and-take of a policy discussion in the community, with citizens. I didn't know that even took place, frankly, but I never dreamed it would be an enjoyable thing to do.

As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.

Increased town size hurts real democracy in two ways. First… it dramatically reduces the percentage of citizens who attend town meetings. Second, town size increases the number of citizens who attend, which dramatically reduces the percentage of these attendees who participate.”

We can’t leave the job of leadership to the leaders.

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation

Government has got to open up and engage citizenry as partners.

My experience as a county commissioner has taught me that the best ideas often come from our neighbors, church groups, and community.

I have my own vision to lead the Seoul City, but whether or not I can display it totally depends on the citizens.

What I was excited about was the opportunity for punters to be part of politics. The whole idea was to allow the voices of people outside this weirdo palace of Westminster to be heard. I thought the whole social media thing might be really positive.

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