Democracy Quotes

Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.

~ Erik Paulsen

The more that social democracy develops, grows, and becomes stronger, the more the enlightened masses of workers will take their own destinies, the leadership of their movement, and the determination of its direction into their own hands.

~ Rosa Luxemburg

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.

~ Chinua Achebe

In politics, Joseph Smith was something of a radical. He preached, instead of democracy, a version of theocratic rule within a framework given by his own prophetic leadership. At Nauvoo, Smith affected a Napoleonic uniform and made himself into a general and quasi king of the polity he had constituted.

~ Noah Feldman

So I think democracy, in the long-term, in our countries will survive if it comes to be associated with leadership, will not survive if democracy plus media brings to us more and more followship rather than leadership.

~ Mario Monti

Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.

~ Charles Edison

The American people need to know the truth. The American people need to see the truth. In a democracy, letting the people know the truth is the essence of what it means to be free.

~ Barbara Boxer

It shouldn't take extreme courage and a willingness to go to prison for decades or even life to blow the whistle on bad government acts done in secret. But it does. And that is an immense problem for democracy, one that all journalists should be united in fighting.

~ Glenn Greenwald

If we don't have a vigorous questioning, aggressive journalistic community and mythology, democracy itself is in great jeopardy.

~ Milton Glaser

If we vote to Leave and take back control, all sorts of opportunities open up. Including doing new free trade deals around the world, restoring Britain's seat on all sorts of international bodies, restoring health to our democracy and belief to our democracy.

~ Boris Johnson

If I were a capitalist I would not give my employees health insurance with no deductible, which I do, including dental, and paid pregnancy leave. That's not called capitalism, that's called being a Christian and someone who believes in democracy, so that everyone should get a fair slice of the pie.

~ Michael Moore

Having women in office is vital to the health of our democracy because women play a unique role in our society. By and large, women are still the primary caregivers in families, even as we have taken our place in the workforce.

~ Ellen Malcolm

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That's why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

~ Barack Obama

In the early 2000s, people expected that anonymity on the Internet would be positive for the development of democracy in South Korea. In a Confucian culture like South Korea's, hierarchy can block the free exchange of opinions in face-to-face situations. The web offered a way around that.

~ Kim Young-Ha

The Commonwealth is a vital and positive partnership between countries striving to develop trade relations and promote democracy and human rights, united by shared values.

~ Douglas Alexander

The main point of democracy is to deliver positive results for the majority.

~ Chrystia Freeland

I think it's the height of patriotism to continue to exercise your right as a citizen and to hold your government to account. Isn't that what the very essence of democracy is about?

~ Valerie Plame

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

~ J. William Fulbright

I think it is something that is so important, to be very aware of the direction in which the 21st century is going with all this blind faith in democracy. And by the way, I am not against democracy - I am against the blind faith that is being put in democracy.

~ Alfonso Cuaron

Voters must have faith in the electoral process for our democracy to succeed.

~ Blanche Lincoln

The basic problem is that web 2.0 tools are not supportive of democracy by design. They are tools designed to gather spy-agency-like data in a seductive way, first and foremost, but as a side effect they tend to provide software support for mob-like phenomena.

~ Jaron Lanier

It's easy to design expensive products. But there's that product democracy that I believe very strongly in to make something affordable for almost anybody that would want to use it.

~ Joy Mangano

A global democracy works only when countries trust one another.

~ Armstrong Williams

America is a country ready to be taken, in fact, longing to be taken by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.

~ Arianna Huffington

Now the first step has to be taken, the step towards democracy. This step is full of risks, and requires trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But if we just stand still, we will have no chance of escaping the violence.

~ Daniel Barenboim

Democracy demands trust. It demands that sense of mutual understanding. And - it's a two way street. You've got to give - as much as you take.

~ Charles Kennedy

Authoritarianism, an unrealistic occidental imagination - these issues will never be settled. Turkey will continue to take Europe as a model; it will continue to pursue its search for democracy.

~ Orhan Pamuk

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

~ Aristotle

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

~ Roger Nash Baldwin

The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.

~ Rebecca Mackinnon

Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.

~ Robert Byrne

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

~ Gore Vidal

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

~ E. B. White

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

~ Charles De Secondat

Democracy is a revelation, but it's complicated. There are elections to hold, politics to create, rights to assert, grievances to settle and institutions to build. To many, it's exhilarating. For others, it can be disappointing when it turns out that democracy doesn't immediately make life better.

~ Atifete Jahjaga

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

You know, I'm not comfortable with people whose politics are static in a democracy.

~ Steve Earle

Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business.

~ Malcolm Forbes

A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful.

~ Charles W. Pickering

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

~ Paddy Chayefsky