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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.”

Men Political Culture Democracy Equal Diversity Claims Social Justice Notion Witty Equality Arise Political Science Equal Respect

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means - what it bestows on us - the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.”

People Mean Ideas Problem Political Moral Democracy Issues Policy Claims Crisis Revolutionary Agency Governance Democracies Have Revolutionary Ideas

Author:Bill Moyers

“Political monopoly and economic monopoly are two sides of the same coin, two heads of the same monster. Despite all the claims to the contrary, the essential ideology of Neo-Conservatism is to preserve the status quo, with all of its injustices. Its public relations experts call for "freedom and democracy" without a framework of higher values. They fail to comprehend the need for a paradigm of justice and therefore are blind to what concerns most of the people in the world. This failure is the taproot of terrorism.”

“The method of democracy is to bring conflicts out into the open where their special claims can be seen and appraised, where they can be discussed and judged.”

Democracy Special Conflict Claims Method Judged

Book:The Political Writings

Source: The Political Writings

“Democracy only works when we claim it as our own.”

Democracy Claims

Author:Bill Moyers

“In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.”

Men Government Form Justice Democracy Failing Mankind Example Equal Claims Notion Arise Forms Of Government Acknowledgement Sprung Sprung Up

Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

“Whatever else the religious Right may be, it is a bonanza for its opponents... Reports of the great terror that is upon us are raising millions of dollars in fund appeals by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, Norman Lear's People for the American Way, and others who claim to believe that the religious Right is the greatest peril to American democracy since Joe McCarthy.”

Source: Piety and politics: evangelicals and fundamentalists confront the world

“True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent.”

Persons Spirit Democracy Claims Aspiration Representing Inconsistent True Democracy

Book:The Wisdom of Gandhi in His Own Words

Source: The Wisdom of Gandhi in His Own Words

“Most Arabs and Muslims feel that the United States hasn't really been paying much attention to their desires. They think it has been pursuing its policies for its own sake and not according to many of the principles that it claims are its own - democracy, self-determination, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, international law.”

“The right tends to posit that the market fuels social good. The left tends to posit that the government fuels social good. At bottom, democracy claims that citizens drive social good, but there is currently no container for a political force-field that stakes claim to the unbelievable resources now virtually untapped in every man, woman, and child in our society.”

“The US two party system is very different, of course. Here the people decides about who should rule them, but it is not reasonable to claim that the people rules itself through the political institutions. In comparison, I find that the standard European system is better, also as a model for global democracy.”

People Should Two Different Political Courses Party Democracy Models Standards Claims Institutions Reasonable Comparison Political Institutions Two Party System

Author:Torbjorn Tannsjo

“The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the pre-revolutionary period. Their goal was as they said; it wasn't a big secret. They regarded the Soviet Union as sort a backwater. They were orthodox Marxists, expecting a revolution in Germany. They moved toward what they themselves called "state capitalism," then they moved on to Stalinism. They called it democracy and called it socialism. The one claim was as ludicrous as the other.”