“To be a film director is not a democracy, it's really a tyranny. You're the head of the project, for better rather than worse. I write the film and I direct the film, I decide who's going to be in it, I decide on the editing, I put in the music from my own record collection.” WritingFilmMy OwnDemocracyRecordsDirectorsProjectsDirectTyrannyCollectionsEditingFilm Directors Author:Woody Allen
“The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.” IfsShouldGovernmentIndividualBeliefProcessViewsExistenceOpinionDemocracyIdealsDirectIndependentMajorityMake SenseConceptionSpheresSpontaneousMajority Opinion Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“Social Democracy preached against capitalism for half a century. After the November revolution the Reds had the opportunity to direct capitalism into the proper paths: but nothing happened!” OpportunitySocialHalfDemocracyPathHappenedCenturyRevolutionCapitalismDirectNovemberHalf A CenturySocial Democracy Author:Julius Streicher
“Everyone knew that democracy - direct rule by all the people - required such spartan, soul-denying virtue on the part of all the people that it was likely to survive only where poverty made upright behavior necessary for the perpetuation of the race.” PeopleMadeRacePovertyVirtueDemocracyBehaviorDirect Author:Bernard Bailyn
“A democracy flirts with the danger of becoming a slave in direct ratio to the numbers of its citizens who work, but do not own / or who own, but do not work; or who distribute, as politicians do, but do not produce. The danger of the "slave state" disappears in ratio to the numbers of people who own property and admit its attendant responsibilities under God. They can call their souls their own because they own and administer something other than their souls. Thus they are free.” PeopleSoulStatesWisdomPoliticsNumbersResponsibilityEconomyDemocracyDangerProduceBecomingCitizensPoliticianDirectPropertySlaveDisappearLiberalismFlirtingRatios Author:Fulton J. Sheen
“I don't support direct democracy because I want a life, and that means I want to select people who work for me who do that sort of work for me.” PeopleWantMeanSupportDemocracyDirectSelectDirect Democracy Author:Lawrence Lessig
“I'm all for experimenting with sortition - randomly selected representative bodies of citizens. But I don't favor direct democracy. We're busy. We have lives. There is reddit. Who has time to work out the right answer to the thousand policy choices a gov't must make all the time?” BodyChoicesAnswersDemocracyPolicyCitizensThousandDirectBusyWork OutFavorsRepresentativesSelectedRight AnswersRedditDirect Democracy Author:Lawrence Lessig
“Representative democracy betrays the electorate when laws have no roots in the people but in oligarchies. Studies on the concept and modalities of direct democracy are therefore becoming more topical” PeopleLawDemocracyStudyBecomingConceptsDirectRootsBetrayRepresentativesBecoming MoreOligarchyElectorateDirect Democracy Author:Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
“Democracy entails a correlation between the public interest as expressed by a majority of the population and the governmental policies that affect them. The term encompasses various manifestations, including direct, participatory and representative democracy, but Governments must be responsive to people and not to special interests such as the military-industrial complex, financial bankers and transnational corporations. Democracy is inclusive and does not privilege an anthropological aristocracy.” PeopleDoeGovernmentTermInterestDemocracySpecialMilitaryPolicyDirectMajorityComplexesIncludingFinancialPrivilegePopulationVariousCorporationsManifestationRepresentativesBankersAristocracySpecial InterestsCorrelationPublic InterestMilitary Industrial ComplexTransnational Corporations Author:Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
“My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy.” PeopleWayBelieveKindPoliticalCan DoDemocracyCenturyPeriodsLateDirectInstrumentsAvailablePermanentLinksLinkedTwentieth CenturyTotalitarianismDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceDirect Democracy Author:Vandana Shiva
“I don't want to get too nuanced, but we have the electoral college in the United States and that means we don't have direct democracy.” WantMeanStatesUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyCollegeDirectElectoral CollegeDirect Democracy Author:Moby
“America is not a democracy. I think if your kids understood that - and most people don't. We are a representative republic. We're not a direct democracy.” PeopleIfsThinkingKidsAmericaDemocracyUnderstoodDirectRepublicRepresentativesDirect Democracy Author:Rush Limbaugh
“If you look at the Associated Press wires, there's a constant flow of information coming in. At that time I happened to have direct access to AP wires. The day the marines landed in Haiti and restored [ Jan Bètran] Aristide there was a lot of excitement about the dedication to democracy and so on. But the day before the marines landed, when every journalist was looking at Haiti because it was assumed that something big was happening, the AP wires reported that then [Bill] Clinton administration had authorized Texaco to ship oil illegally to the military junta.” IfsLooksBigsDemocracyHappenedMilitaryInformationHappeningsFlowDirectBillsPressesConstantClintonOilAccessShipsAdministrationJournalistExcitementDedicationMarineWireHaiti Author:Noam Chomsky
“We are a representative democracy. But how did we get there? We got there through direct action. And that's enshrined in our Constitution and in our values.” ActionValuesDemocracyDirectConstitutionRepresentativesDirect Action Author:Edward Snowden