Best government & democratic Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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.”

“To my mind, there is a solution which has to do with democracy, because democratic governments are subject to the will of the people. So, if the people will it, you can actually create international institutions through the democratic states.”

People Ifs Mind States Government Economy Democracy Subjects Solutions Institutions Democratic International Democratic Government

Author:George Soros

“It is acknowledged, namely, that there are in the world three forms of government, autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy: autocracies and oligarchies are administered according to the tempers of their lords, but democratic states according to established laws.”

World States Government Form Law Three Lord Democracy Democratic Temper Forms Of Government Oligarchy Autocracy

Author:Aeschines

“Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them.”

“Democracy in Iraq will be an example that the Arab population will look to with great interest. And some Arab governments are concerned about democracy in Iraq, not because Iraq will be an aggressive state against them, but rather by the example that will be set by a successful federal democratic state in Iraq.”

Looks States Government Interest Democracy Successful Example Concerned Democratic Iraq Population Aggressive

Author:Ahmed Chalabi

“A recent poll showed that nearly half the American public believes that the government should redistribute wealth. That so many people are so willing to blithely put such an enormous and dangerous arbitrary power in the hands of politicians-\-\risking their own freedom, in hopes of getting what someone else has-\-\is a painful sign of how far many citizens and voters fall short of what is needed to preserve a democratic republic”

“There is danger that totalitarian governments, not subject to vigorous popular debate, will underestimate the will and unity of democratic societies where vital interests are concerned.”

Government Interest Subjects Danger Concerned Democratic Unity Debate Underestimate Vigorous Democratic Society Totalitarian Government

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961

“Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society.”

Important Government Criticism Presses Democratic Officials Thoughtful Scrutiny Democratic Society Government Officials

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1980-1981

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1980-1981

“The intertwining of corporations and government has become so extensive in this century that the notion of a democratic balancing act has become a dangerous illusion-and one of the cornerstones of the corporate mystique.”

Government Century Dangerous Illusion Democratic Notion Corporate Corporations Cornerstones Mystique Balancing Act

Book:Corporation Nation: How Corporations are Taking Over Our Lives -- and What We Can Do About It

Source: Corporation Nation: How Corporations are Taking Over Our Lives -- and What We Can Do About It

“Reagan's story of freedom superficially alludes to the Founding Fathers, but its substance comes from the Gilded Age, devised by apologists for the robber barons. It is posed abstractly as the freedom of the individual from government control a Jeffersonian ideal at the roots of our Bill of Rights, to be sure. But what it meant in politics a century later, and still means today, is the freedom to accumulate wealth without social or democratic responsibilities and license to buy the political system right out from everyone else.”

“The big problem for a democratic government - democrat with a small "d" - is how to hold down government spending.”

Problem Bigs Government Democratic Democrat Spending Big Problems Government Spending Democratic Government

Author:Milton Friedman

“Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse.”

People Ifs Government Democracy Century Habit Discipline Democratic Seven Decades Britain Acquire Democratic Government Traverse

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“My mission is to lead the country out of a bad situation of corruption, depression and slavery. After I rid the country of these vices, I will then organize and supervise a general election of a genuinely democratic civilian government.”

Country Government Situation Election Slavery Democratic Vices Corruption Missions Organize Civilians Bad Situations General Elections

Author:Idi Amin

“But, clearly, the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to -- not in private hands. The current circumstances come out of what I think is a very important and indeed appropriate action that the Iraqi government has taken.”

Thinking Knows Important States Hands Government Action Democracy Taken Arms Circumstances Democratic Currents Ministers Appropriate Belonging Prime Prime Minister Ground Rules

Author:Condoleezza Rice

“The Democratic Party might be called the Takings Coalition, made up of groups that want the government to take from American citizens -- usually cash -- and keep it for itself.”

Want Made Government Might Party Groups Citizens Democratic Cash Democratic Party Coalitions American Citizens

Author:Grover Norquist

“Even if a government can be constitutional without being democratic, it cannot be democratic without being constitutional.”

Ifs Government Democratic

Book:Constitutional Dictatorship

Source: Constitutional Dictatorship

Firsts Self Government Might Democratic Unity Socialism Transition Bureaucracy Owing

Author:Salvador Allende

“The natural proclivity of democratic governments is to pursue public policies which concentrate benefits on the well-organized and well-informed, and disperse the costs on the unorganized and ill-informed.”

Wells Government Natural Policy Cost Benefits Democratic Ill Pursue Organized Public Policy Democratic Government

Author:Peter Boettke

“A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition of political domination.”

Source: Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy

“Tony Blair a couple years ago was going around apologizing for everything. He apologized for the Irish potato famine. The Canadian government apologized for how it treated Indian school children.When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for being the biggest slave-holding-supporting institution on the planet and sticking with racism for the century after the abolition of slavery?”

“(Terrorists) are planning to disrupt our democratic process. It's scary I know, but we're not going to let al Qaeda tell us what to do. In fact, our government has decided that if al Qaeda attempts to disrupt our democratic process, we are going to respond by disrupting it first.”

Ifs Knows Firsts Facts Government Process Decided Democratic Scary Terrorist Planning Als Al Qaeda Democratic Process

Author:Jon Stewart

“The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.”

People Ifs Humans Government Courses Given Chance Human Beings Theory Normal Democratic Average Bitter Democratic Government Given A Chance Bitter Experience

Book:Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race

Source: Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race

“When the Founders thought of democracy, they saw democracy in the political sphere - a sphere strictly limited by the Constitution's well-defined and enumerated powers given the federal government. Substituting democratic decision making for what should be private decision making is nothing less than tyranny dressed up.”

Should Wells Government Political Given Decision Democracy Saws Constitution Democratic Tyranny Defined Decision Making Spheres Founders Federal Government Dressed Up

Author:Walter E. Williams

“First there is the democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed, and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation.”

People Men Firsts Ideas Government Certain Natural Rights Development Equal Institutions Democratic Creator Exploitation Organize Equal Rights Natural Rights

Book:Additional Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons

Source: Additional Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons

“Unemployment is a reproach to a democratic government.”

Government Democratic Unemployment Reproach Democratic Government

Book:After Keynes: Papers Presented to Section F (Economics) at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

Source: After Keynes: Papers Presented to Section F (Economics) at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

“The Independent Expert is persuaded that recognition of peace as a human right will promote a democratic and equitable international order and that national and international democratization will reduce conflict, since peoples want peace. It is Governments that stumble into war.”

Want Humans War Government Order Conflict Independent Democratic International Recognition Experts Equitable Democratization

Author:Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

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