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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“The peoples of Yugoslavia do not want Fascism. They do not want a totalitarian regime, they do not want to become slaves of the German and Italian financial oligarchy as they never wanted to become reconciled to the semi-colonial dependence imposed on them by the so-called Western democracies after the first imperialist war.”

WantFirstsWarWantedDemocracySlaveWesternFinancialItalianFascismRegimesDependenceOligarchyYugoslaviaTotalitarian Regimes
Author:Josip Broz Tito
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“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.”

GovernmentFormPoorNumbersDemocracyRichMajorityNobleForms Of GovernmentOligarchy
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“Democracy appears to be safer and less liable to revolution than oligarchy. For in oligarchies there is the double danger of the oligarchs falling out among themselves and also with the people; but in democracies there is only the danger of a quarrel with the oligarchs. No dissension worth mentioning arises among the people themselves. And we may further remark that a government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.”

PeopleMayGovernmentFormFallClassDemocracyMiddleDangerRevolutionAriseMiddle ClassImperfectQuarrelsRemarksForms Of GovernmentLiableOligarchyDissension
Book:On man in the universe: Metaphysics, Parts of animals, Ethics, Politics, Poetics
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“There is an error common to both oligarchies and to democracies: in the latter the demagogues, when the multitude are above the law, are always cutting the city in two by quarrels with the rich, whereas they should always profess to be maintaining their cause; just as in oligarchies the oligarchs should profess to maintain the cause of the people, . .”

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Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“In the Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to oligarchy.”

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Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
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“Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.”

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Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“Because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government. Hence arises the common opinion that there are two kinds of government - democracy and oligarchy.”

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Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“There are still two forms besides democracy and oligarchy; one of them is universally recognized and included among the four principal forms of government, which are said to be (1) monarchy, (2) oligarchy, (3) democracy, and (4) the so-called aristocracy or government of the best. But there is also a fifth, which retains the generic name of polity or constitutional government.”

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Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“Tradition is only democracy extended through time; it may be defined as an extension of the franchise. 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 the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who are merely walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father.”

IfsMenGivingMayMeanGovernmentFatherOpinionClassDemocracyObjectsBirthWalkingTraditionVoteDemocratRefuseAccidentsDefinedGood ManNeglectAncestorArrogantSubmitObscureExtensionsOur FatherRough TimesOligarchy
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“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.”

IfsKindAmericaFormPoliticalTurnsLosesHalfDemocracyWillingHigherPeriodsComfortableOrganizationAbuseMajorityMiseryDecentMinoritiesDictatorshipExploitationSuperiorityOligarchy
Author:Benjamin Spock
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“The interesting thing about that is one of the greatest critics of socialism and leftwing writings was Robert Michels who wrote a series of essays called "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" and in these essays he discusses how no matter what sorts of freedoms are advertised or put into a society structure, that all societies, all form of governments - whether they be a Roman republic, whether they be a democracy, whether they be a Russian communist system, whatever, a tribe... a tribal council - all of the continuously, throughout the ages, have all converted back into an oligarchy.”

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Author:Immortal Technique
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“In the last presidential election Obama and Romney raised about $1 billion each. The Koch brothers, the second wealthiest family in America, now say they will raise nearly $1 billion for the 2016 elections. When one family can raise as much as an entire party, the system is broken. This is oligarchy, not democracy. We must overturn Citizens United.”

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Author:Bernie Sanders
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“The billionaires and their super PACs increasingly control the American political process. This is not democracy. This is not what brave Americans fought and died to defend. This is oligarchy. This is government of the few, by the few and for the few. We must overturn Citizen United and move to public funding of elections.”

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Author:Bernie Sanders
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