Democratic Governance Quotes

No substantial famine has ever occurred in a democratic country - no matter how poor.

The revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat ... [is a] state that is democratic for the proletariat and the poor in general.

When we talk about the word 'socialism,' I think what it really means is just democratic participation in our economic dignity and our economic, social, and racial dignity. It is about direct representation and people actually having power and stake over their economic and social wellness, at the end of the day.

Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

Whatever faults modern democracies may have committed ..., the faults chargeable on monarchs and oligarchies have been less pardonable and more harmful to the peace and progress of mankind.

The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.

I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible.

One of the distinctions between democracy and other forms of government is that while democracy is messy on the surface, other forms of government are messy underneath.

I believe that democracy will prevail, so long as the United States stays with these young democracies to help them.

The Slavs were known to live in democracies; they discussed their wants in popular assemblies

Terrorism springs from sources other than the form of government of a state. There is no reason to believe that a more democratic Arab world will, simply by virtue of being more democratic, generate fewer terrorists.

Democracy is usually seen as a pacifying force that “draws the teeth” from conflict.

Mass democracy guarantees stupidity. Masses of people, even if they're individually intelligent, can only act stupidly.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.

If there’s not a good feedback loop from the people to the government, and if you have rule of the bureaucrat — if the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have? If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives in the form of the president and the Senate and the House, then we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a bureaucracy.

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised

When a people, having become free, establish wise laws, their revolution is complete.

As the people of the United States enjoy the great merit of having established a system of Government on the basis of human rights, and of giving it a form without example, which, as they believe, unites the greatest national strength with the best security for public order and individual liberty, they owe to themselves, to their posterity and to the world, a preservation of the system in its purity, its symmetry, and its authenticity.

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name.

I’m not intellectually convinced that one-man, one-vote is the best. We practise it because that’s what the British bequeathed us

My job is to try to advance American foreign policy, to try to advance the president's agenda on democracy and human rights.

We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we've treated the Arab world as just an oil field.