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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Source: The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation

“In a really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. ... Unless they are, there is not equal government, but a government of inequality and privilege: one part of the people rule over the rest: there is a part whose fair and equal share of influence in the representation is withheld from them, contrary to all just government, but, above all, contrary to the principle of democracy, which professes equality as its very root and foundation.”

People Government Would Be Principles Democracy Share Influence Equal Fairs Roots Foundation Privilege Contrary Inequality Representation Sections

Author:John Stuart Mill

“Democracy is premised, in some measure, on majority rule, and democracy is difficult in a situation of concentrated inequalities in which a large, impoverished majority confronts a small, wealthy oligarchy.”

Difficult Situation Democracy Majority Inequality Wealthy Oligarchy Majority Rule

Book:The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late 20th Century

Source: The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late 20th Century

“Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.”

Two Wisdom Government Spirit Politics Individual Economy Democracy Extremes Inequality Liberalism Excess Conquest Aristocracy Despotism Democracies Have

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“If we were going to address what involves the biggest number of women, reproductive freedom is a fundamental human right - like freedom of speech, the most basic right. Freedom from violence, since women worldwide are still like 70% at least of all victims of violence. Equality in the family, democracy in the family, since the family is the microcosm of everything else, so if you have inequality and violence in the family, it normalizes it in the street, for foreign policy, for every place else.”

Ifs Humans Stills Numbers Democracy Violence Streets Policy Speech Victim Fundamentals Inequality Addresses Foreign Policy Freedom Of Speech Microcosm

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Like an odorless gas, [inequality] pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of the country's democracy. But it seems impossible to find the source and shut it off.”

Country States Seems United Poverty United States Democracy Impossible Source Corners Inequality Gas Sap

Author:George Packer

“The biggest danger I feel are an emerging group of Westernised, educated, champagne socialists and latte liberals who pontificate about social inequality, democracy and freedom in the comfort of their condos.”

Feels Social Democracy Groups Danger Comfort Educated Inequality Emerging Champagne Lattes Social Inequality

Author:Calvin Cheng

“We know that communism is the right hypothesis. All those who abandon this hypothesis immediately resign themselves to the market economy, to parliamentary democracy-the form of state suited to capitalism-and to the inevitable and 'natural' character of the most monstrous inequalities.”

Knows States Character Form Natural Economy Democracy Capitalism Inequality Communism Inevitable Abandon Hypothesis Monstrous Market Economy Parliamentary Parliamentary Democracy

Author:Alain Badiou

“Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another... Inequality undermines democracy.”

Class Democracy Inequality Divides Class System

Author:George Packer

“The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.”