Best democracy & majority Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“This leads to a question - if a great many people are for a certain project, is it necessarily right? If the vast majority is for it, is it even more certainly right? This, to be sure, is one of the tricky points of democracy. The minority often turns out to be right, and though one believes in the efficacy of the democratic process, one has also to recognize that the demand of the many for a particular project at a particular time may mean only disaster.”

People Ifs Believe May Mean Certain Turns Process Democracy Particular Demand Projects Majority Democratic Disaster Great Men Minorities Tricky Efficacy Democratic Process

Book:The Roosevelt I Knew

Source: The Roosevelt I Knew

“Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no means infallible or certain. Nor must we forget that there has often been much more cultural and spiritual freedom under an autocratic rule than under some democracies and it is at least conceivable that under the government of a very homogeneous and doctrinaire majority democratic government might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship.”

“I am convinced that the majority of American people do understand that we have a moral responsibility to foster the concepts of opportunity, free enterprise, the rule of law, and democracy. They understand that these values are the hope of the world.”

People World Law Values Opportunity Responsibility Moral Democracy Concepts Majority Convinced Enterprise Rule Of Law Free Enterprise Moral Responsibility

Author:Richard Lugar

“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.”

Politics Poor Power Democracy Rich Majority Supreme Democracies Have

Author:Aristotle

“In the South, prior to the Civil Rights movement and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, democracy was the rule. The majority of people were white, and the white majority had little or no respect for any rights which the black minority had relative to property, or even to their own lives. The majority - the mob and occasionally the lynch mob - ruled.”

People Littles Black White Democracy Rights Movement Civilization Majority Property South Civil Rights Minorities Relative Civil Rights Movement No Respect Civil Rights Act

Book:The Terrible Truth about Liberals

Source: The Terrible Truth about Liberals

“The essence of constitutionalism in a democracy is not merely to shape and condition the nature of majorities, but also to stipulate that certain things are impermissible, no matter how large and fervent a majority might want them.”

Want Matter Might Certain Liberty Democracy Conditions Shapes Essence Majority Fervent Constitutionalism

Book:With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002

Source: With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002

“In capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition to communism, will for the first time create democracy for the people, for the majority, along with the necessary suppression of the exploiters, of the minority.”

People Firsts Democracy Rich Periods First Time Majority Communism Minorities Transition Capitalist Dictatorship Wretched Suppression Proletariat

Author:Vladimir Lenin

“Violent resistance against the power of the state is the last resort of the minority in its effort to break loose from the oppression of the majority. ... The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state.”

Source: The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism

“The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible.”

Source: Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

“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.”

“It is when it is contended that "in a democracy right is what the majority makes it to be" that democracy degenerates into demagoguery.”

Democracy Majority Degenerates Demagoguery

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“[Proportional representation is a] device for defeating democracy, the principle of which was that the majority should rule, and for bringing faddists of all kinds into Parliament, and establishing groups and disintegrating parties.”

Should Kind Party Principles Democracy Groups Majority All Kinds Devices Representation Parliament Proportional Representation

Author:David Lloyd George

“At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

“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 turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority.”

Wells Democracy Groups Majority Connected Stealing Organized Minorities Democracies Have Majority Rule Minority Groups

Author:Llewellyn Rockwell

“The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.”

“Democracy means that if this man,you Miss and I will be trapped on an island, we having a majority of votes will decide that you have to sleep with us. That's the Democracy. And with 2/3 votes we can even put that in the constitution.”

Ifs Men Mean Sleep Democracy Missing Vote Constitution Majority Islands Trapped

Author:Janusz Korwin-Mikke

“The Little Guy, behind whom politicians strategically coalesce — thumping majorities prevail in a democracy — cannot abide by a reality in which greater wealth affords greater "access."”

Democracy Majority

Author:Ilana Mercer

“And what has come to prevail in democracies is the very reverse of beneficial, in those, that is, which are regarded as the most democratically run. The reason for this lies in the failure properly to define liberty. For there are two marks by which democracy is thought to be defined: "sovereignty of the majority" and "liberty." "Just" is equated with what is equal, and the decision of the majority as to what is equal is regarded as sovereign; and liberty is seen in terms of doing what one wants.”

Want Two Reason Running Lying Politics Term Decision Liberty Economy Democracy Equal Mark Majority Defined Liberalism Reverse Sovereign Sovereignty Beneficial

Author:Aristotle

“What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it... which for the majority translates as 'Bread and Circuses'.”

Doe Self Happens Interest Democracy Citizens Vote Safety Majority Bread Welfare Translate Sovereign Circus Self Interest Public Interest Bread And Circuses

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“What frightens me about America today is that in the large majority there is no active sense of the value of the individual: few citizens feel that they are the Republic, responsible for what happens. And when the individual in a democracy ceases to feel his importance, then there is grave danger that he will give over his freedom, if not to a Fascist State, then to the advertising men or Publicity Agents or to the newspaper he happens to read.”

“A fatal defect in majority rule is that by its very nature it abolishes itself. Majority rule must inevitably become minority rule: the majority is too big to handle itself; it organizes itself into committees ... which in their turn resolve themselves into a committee of one.”

Bigs Turns Democracy Majority Handle Minorities Resolve Organize Committees Defects Abolish Majority Rule

Book:The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government

Source: The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government

“Self-censorship as a result of intimidation or social pressures, sometimes referred to as "political correctness", constitutes a serious obstacle to the proper functioning of democracy. It is important to hear the views of all persons,including the "silent majority", and to give heed to the weaker voices.”

“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.”

“In a racially divided society, majority rule is not a reliable instrument of democracy.”

Democracy Racism Instruments Majority Divided Majority Rule

Author:Lani Guinier

“The form of government is a democracy when the free, who are also poor and the majority, govern, and an oligarchy when the rich and the noble govern, they being at the same time few in number.”

Government Form Poor Numbers Democracy Rich Majority Noble Forms Of Government Oligarchy

Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens

“Democracy is about voting and it's about a majority vote. And it's time that we started exercising the Democratic process.”

Process Democracy Exercise Vote Majority Democratic Voting Democratic Process Majority Vote

Author:Debbie Stabenow

“In a democracy sovereignity is vested in a majority; and a majority is not only, at best, an ignorant, foolish and emotional mob, but shifts continually and alters from year to year.”

Years Government Democracy Emotional Majority Foolish Ignorant

Author:Jean Bodin

“The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.”

Government Liberty Democracy Majority Progressive

Author:John C. Calhoun

“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.”

“The Founders understood that democracy was important, but if you didn't filter it through a republican system you'd be just as likely to end up with a tyranny of the majority as you would with a healthy society. Don't worry, I won't quote the Federalist Papers, but trust me, it's in there.”

“I guess 35 years ago, I thought we had more of a democracy than we actually do. Majority support doesn't help unless the majority is active and votes - but the opposition minority votes a much greater proportion, so we often lose by a narrow margin.”

Years Helping Loses Support Democracy Greater Years Ago Vote Majority Active Proportion Opposition Minorities Margins

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Money originated with royalty and slavery, it has nothing to do with democracy or the struggle of the empoverished enslaved majority.”

Struggle Democracy Slavery Majority Royalty

Author:Aristotle

“Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies.”

Known Opinion Democracy Modern Ignorance Research Discovery Majority Western Indifference Public Opinion Electorate

Book:Democracy ancient and modern

Source: Democracy ancient and modern

“That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.”

People World Desire Democracy Pages Majority Injustice Minorities World History Inhumanity Majority And Minority

Book:The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila

“I call government that works the best for people open society, which is basically just another more general term for a democracy that is - you call it maybe a liberal democracy. It's not only majority rule but also respect for minorities and minority opinions and the rule of law. So it's really a sort of institutional democracy.”

People Government Law Term Opinion Democracy Majority Minorities Rule Of Law Majority Rule Liberal Democracy

Author:George Soros

“Democracy is for infidels. A real Muslim is not a democrat because he doesn't care about the opinions of majorities and minorities don't interest him. He is only interested in what Islam says.”

Real Care Interest Opinion Democracy Majority Democrat Islam Minorities Infidel He Doesn't Care Majority And Minority

Author:Abdul Sattar Abu Risha

“If there is a rotten government in a democracy, the main reason for this is that there is a rotten majority over there!”

Ifs Reason Government Democracy Majority Rotten

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“If, in a democracy, the cognition of the majority is not much better than the cognition of the sheep, democracy will surely fail.”

Ifs Democracy Failing Majority Sheep Cognition

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“The procedure we are pursuing is that of true democracy. Semi-democracy accepts the dictatorship of a majority in establishing its arbitrary, ergo, unnatural, laws. True democracy discovers by patient experiment and unanimous acknowledgement what the laws of nature or universe may be for the physical support and metaphysical satisfaction of the human intellect's function in universe.”

Source: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

“The majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organization and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy.”

People Action Order Black White Democracy Security Mass Organization Majority South Campaigns Establishment Black And White South Africa Defiance Apartheid Peace And Security

Author:Nelson Mandela

“We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable, I do not think, the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency, of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.”

“We know that a large majority of the Australian society is extremely comfortable with a multicultural society, that we accept that living in a democracy means having a freedom to practise your religion within the limits of the law.”

Knows Mean Law Accepting Democracy Limits Comfortable Majority Australian Multicultural Practise Multicultural Society

Author:Tim Soutphommasane

“New Rule: The rest of the world can go back to being completely jealous of America. Our majority white country just freely elected a black president, something no other democracy has ever done. Take that Canada! Where's your nubian warrior president? Your head of state is a boring white dude named Steven Harper, and mine is a kick-ass black ninja named Barack Hussein Obama!”

Source: The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass

“Democracy appears to me potentially a higher form of political organization than any kind of dictatorship. But if it turns out that in America, which could afford a decent living for everyone, the comfortable majority is willing to condone the misery and abuse of a minority for an indefinite period, the exploitation by the majority becomes as repugnant as exploitation by an oligarchy, and democracy loses half its supposed superiority.”

“In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.”

Political Freedom Democracy Majority Organized Minorities Organize

Author:Jesse Jackson

“I think it is a simple statement of principle that in a democracy you should make your MPs work harder for your vote and try and get at least majority support in their local area, and that in a nutshell is what AV does.”

Thinking Should Trying Doe Simple Principles Support Democracy Hard Work Areas Vote Harder Majority Statements Locals Work Harder Mps

Author:Nick Clegg

“I am very worried about this concentration of power, and it's not only because of Erdogan. We have the ballot box, but we don't have the culture of democracy. The government says: You see, we have the majority, we're entitled to do anything we want. But that's not democracy, that's majoritarianism.”

Want Government Culture Democracy Majority Boxes Worried Concentration Entitled Ballots Erdogan

Author:Elif Safak

“No one can deny that some Islamist groups have credential and popularity. But that does not mean they are a majority. If we are serious about democracy we cannot blame the people for choosing what they want. We must promote the kinds of procedures and processes that are helping the people move ahead.”

People Ifs Want Kind Mean Doe Helping Moving Process Democracy Groups Serious Blame Majority Deny Popularity Procedures Moving Ahead Islamists

Author:Tariq Ramadan

“The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.”

Evil Force Party Democracy Succeed Election Majority Tyranny Fraud Hype Democracies Have Voting And Democracy Majority Rule Tyranny Of The Majority Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely Majority And Minority

Book:The History of Freedom (and other Essays)

Source: The History of Freedom (and other Essays)

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