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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.”

“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.”

Men Political Politics Freedom Democracy Philosophical Property Rulers Democracies Have Voting And Democracy Democracy Freedom

Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

“Even if Zuma was to develop the authoritarian impulses of a Mugabe, he would be checked - not least by his own party, which set a continental precedent by ousting Thabo Mbeki in 2007, after it felt he had outstayed his welcome by seeking a third term as party president. The ANC appears to have set itself against that deathtrap of African democracy: the ruler for life.”

Ifs Would Be Felt President Term Party Democracy Thirds Seeking Welcome Impulse Rulers Precedent Continental Mugabe Zuma

Author:Mark Gevisser

“The self-discipline of the Social Democracy is not merely the replacement of the authority of bourgeois rulers with the authority of a socialist central committee. The working class will acquire the sense of the new discipline, the freely assumed self-discipline of the Social Democracy, not as a result of the discipline imposed on it by the capitalist state, but by extirpating, to the last root, its old habits of obedience and servility.”

“Meiklejohn's position is that free speech in a democracy is not an absolute flowing from the boundless source of some presumed 'natural right.' It is a practical necessity of 'self-government by universal suffrage,' for if the citizens are not permitted to argue out the issues of government, how can they be what they must be in a democracy - the rulers as well as the ruled?”

“Democracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers, and oligarchy in which the rich; it is only an accident that the free are the many and the rich are the few.”

Government Form Democracy Rich Accidents Rulers Forms Of Government Oligarchy

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“Unless the people can choose their leaders and rulers, and can revoke their choice at intervals long enough to test their measuresby results, the government will be a tyranny exercised in the interests of whatever classes or castes or mobs or cliques have this choice.”

People Long Enough Government Choices Interest Results Leader Class Democracy Tests Tyranny Voting Rulers Intervals Castes Clique

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“Under theocracies and other authoritarian regimes, the rulers are the moral authorities. Under genuine democracy some basic values are entrenched in the legal system, which is expected to be under democratic vigilance, and others are left to the person or the group, which ideally debate moral problems in a rational, free and cooperative manner.”

Persons Problem Values Left Moral Democracy Groups Authority Democratic Expected Debate Genuine Rational Regimes Rulers Vigilance Cooperatives Legal System Theocracy Moral Authority

Author:Mario Bunge

“After many unhappy experiments in the direction of an ideal Republic, it was found that what may be described as a Despotism tempered by Dynamite provides, on the whole, the most satisfactory description of ruler - an autocrat who dares not abuse his autocratic power.”

May Whole Found Democracy Ideals Abuse Dare Experiments Unhappy Description Republic Rulers Despotism Dynamite

Book:The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan

Source: The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan

“The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike. Subjectivism about moral values is eternally incompatible with democracy. We and our rulers are of one kind only so long as we are subject to one law. But if there is no Law of Nature, the ethos of any society is the creation of its rulers, educators and conditioners; and every creator stands above and outside his own creation.”

Ifs Kind Long Ideas Law Values Moral Democracy Subjects Creation Creator Objectives Rulers Laws Of Nature Educator Ethos Moral Values Moral Law Subjectivism

Book:Christian Reflections

Source: Christian Reflections

“I think democracies are prone to inflation because politicians will naturally spend [excessively] - they have the power to print money and will use money to get votes. If you look at inflation under the Roman Empire, with absolute rulers, they had much greater inflation, so we don't set the record. It happens over the long-term under any form of government.”

Ifs Thinking Looks Long Use Government Happens Form Term Democracy Records Greater Politician Vote Absolutes Long Term Empires Print Rulers Inflation Forms Of Government Roman Empire

Author:Charlie Munger

“Rulers like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser started subsidizing bread as a way to buy loyalty, or at least obedience, and this system became so pervasive that the Tunisian scholar Larbi Sadiki described countries who used it as dimuqratiyyat al-khubz - "democracies of bread." But the problem with this system of offering bread in exchange for genuine democracy is that it can never last - sooner or later, the bread will run out, and people will start demanding bread and roses too.”

People Way Country Problem Running Lasts Used Democracy Rose Loyalty Genuine Bread Obedience Als Offering Scholar Rulers Sooner Or Later Egypt

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“There is no "ruler" in our country. Poland is a democracy. Our Prime Minister leads the government; the President is fulfilling his tasks. But there is a little bit left for the party leader.”

Littles Country Government Left Bits President Party Leader Democracy Little Bit Tasks Our Country Ministers Prime Rulers Fulfilling Prime Minister Poland

Author:Jaroslaw Kaczynski