Best Representative Government Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security.”

“Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of the representative government, cannot exist.”

People Ifs Different Feelings Government Speak Language United Opinion Fellows Representatives Public Opinion Different Languages Representative Government Fellow Feeling

Book:Considerations on Representative Government

Source: Considerations on Representative Government

“Unity is the only way in which the people of this country can overthrow the fascists, communists, capitalists, and all the other assholes who claim running a representative government is so difficult. The emphasis has been taken from the Bill of Rights and placed on the type of interpretation of the Constitution that best suits the people in power.”

“We have now in our possession three instruments of civilization, unknown to antiquity. These are the art of printing; free representative government; and, lastly, a pure and spiritual religion, the deep fountain of generous enthusiasm, the mighty spring of bold and lofty designs, the great sanctuary of moral power.”

“the whole flavor and quality of the American representative government turns to ashes on the tongue, if one regards that government as simply an inferior and rather second-rate sort of corporation.”

Ifs Whole Government Turns Quality Regard Rate Tongue Corporations Representatives Ashes Inferiors Flavor Second Rate Representative Government

Book:The Folks at Home

Source: The Folks at Home

“I think a way to behave is to think not in terms of representative government, not in terms of voting, not in terms of electoral politics, but thinking in terms of organizing social movements, organizing in the work place, organizing in the neighborhood, organizing collectives that can become strong enough to eventually take over - first to become strong enough to resist what has been done to them by authority, and second, later, to become strong enough to actually take over the institutions.”

“There is one central characteristic of anarchism on the matter of means, and that central principle is a principle of direct action - of not going through the forms that the society offers you, of representative government, of voting, of legislation, but directly taking power.”

Mean Matter Government Action Form Principles Offers Direct Characteristics Voting Representatives Legislation Anarchism Direct Action Representative Government

Author:Howard Zinn

“The theory behind representative government is that superior men-or at least men not inferior to the average in ability and integrity-are chosen to manage the public business, and that they carry on this work with reasonable intelligence and honest. There is little support for that theory in known facts.”

“The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.”

Made States Seems Government Political Responsibility Democracy Modern Essentials Institutions Merit Immense Representatives Distribution Indirect Modern Times Representative Government Political Responsibility

Book:The Quotable Bertrand Russell

Source: The Quotable Bertrand Russell

“We have too much legislating by clamor, by tumult, by pressure. Representative government ceases when outside influence of any kind is substituted for the judgment of the representative.”

Kind Government Too Much Influence Judgment Pressure Cease Representatives Clamor Tumult Representative Government Outside Influences

Book:The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses

Source: The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses

“Though the Floundering Fathers didn't intend it, we now see that representative government quickly turns into the dictatorship of the proletariat. If you doubt this, I congratulate you on not having a television.”

Ifs Government Turns Father Doubt Television Dictatorship Representatives Proletariat Representative Government Floundering

Author:Fred Reed

“There is a flaw in the operation of representative government. The flaw produces the growth of government.”

Government Growth Produce Operations Flaws Representatives Representative Government

Author:Allan H. Meltzer

“Military and absolutist regimes are undoubtedly well fitted to get the jump on an unsuspecting or unprepared enemy; but the history of modern warfare proves that they cannot win over representative governments in the long run, provided that people behind those governments have the heart to sustain initial punishment, and both the will and the resources to fight back.”

Source: History of United States Naval Operations in World War II

“One of the fundamental necessities in a representative government such as ours is to make certain that the men to whom the people delegate their power shall serve the people by whom they are elected, and not the special interests. I believe that every national officer, elected or appointed, should be forbidden to perform any service or receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, from interstate corporations; and a similar provision could not fail to be useful within the States.”

Source: Letters and Speeches

“Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.”

Government Break Democracy Representatives Bureaucracy Breaking Down Representative Government

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“What we would be committed to would be a representative government where all the Iraqi people decide who should lead their nation, and lead it in a way that keeps it together as a single nation and where all parts of the nation - Shia, Sunni and Kurds - are able to live free and in peace and believe that their interests are represented by the government.”

People Way Should Believe Government Would Be Able Together Nations Interest Committed Representatives Live Free Kurds Shia Representative Government

Author:Colin Powell

“It is the US government's desire for the Iraqi people to lead themselves, not for any outside power to be the leadership for Iraq in the future. There may be some transition period where the international community would have to help the Iraqi people put in place a representative government. But that is the goal, not for the United States, or any other nation, for that matter, who might be in such a coalition, if one is formed, to serve as the leader of the Iraqi nation.”

“There's a real danger in the way our representative government functions today. It functions properly only when paired with accountability.”

Way Real Government Today Danger Function Accountability Representatives Representative Government

Author:Edward Snowden

“I think what we are confronting now is a new war of ideas. It's not communism versus capitalism, but it is authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government. And that is a threat that here in Europe, they feel acutely. They've seen their countries interfered with, bombarded by cyber-attacks, by Russian propaganda, indeed, by Russian troops.”

“One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.”

“The power of the silent filibuster to distort Senate politics is now accepted on Capitol Hill and by the press as normal and not worth mentioning. Let me be the skunk at this political garden party and say this stinks. Representative government was not designed to work this way by the Founding Fathers.”

Way Government Political Father Party Normal Garden Let Me Presses Silent Accepted Hills Senate Representatives Founding Stink Capitol Capitol Hill Representative Government Filibuster

Author:Juan Williams

“Even if they were willing to let you remove your Pride from the council's collective influence—and they won't be—there's a reason the council exists. We band together because there's strength in numbers. Because in its unperverted state, the council ensures representative government and a pooling of resources and ideas that benefits everyone." "Yes, but the operative word there is unperverted, and right now, you guys are operating under the thumb of the biggest power-pervert ever to swish his tail in the U.S. He's like Hitler with fur.”

Source: Alpha

“Consequently, citizen legislators, rotating back to their communities after a short period of public service—considered an indispensable and routine characteristic and design of representative government at the time of the founding, and for a century thereafter—have been replaced with a professional ruling class led by governing masterminds. For the most part, they are isolated from the communities from which they hail and are consumed with the daily jockeying for position and power within their ranks. Moreover, they both pander to and lord over their constituents.”

“Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.”

Government Political Economy Capitalism Tyranny Socialism Representatives Market Economy Representative Government

Book:Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses

Source: Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses

“It's harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq -- all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering -- all of it has led to this moment of success. Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations.”

“I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.”

Government Purpose Answers Republican Degrees Constitution Genuine Representatives Beneficial Republican Government Representative Government

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid. Sure Congress is an inefficient instrument of government. But the people are not stupid enough to abandon representative government for any other kind, including government by the guy who knows.”

People Knows Humans Kind Enough Government Guy Race Stupid Instruments Including Congress Stupidity Human Race Abandon Representatives Not Stupid Representative Government

Author:Bernard DeVoto

“Representative government has broken down. Our politicians represent not the people who vote for them but the commercial interests who finance their election campaigns. We have the best politicians that money can buy.”

People Government Interest Broken Politician Vote Election Campaigns Finance Representatives Broken Down Representative Government

Book:A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

“The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community.”

Source: Considerations on Representative Government

“The spread of democracy, the new foundation of the rule of law, and the creation of fledgling representative governments that honor and respect human rights-together these actions spell out the increasing marginalization of the terrorists, as they have fewer and fewer places to run and hide.”

“I am very optimistic about - about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.”

Mean Ends Home Government Moving Achievement Summer Iraq Optimistic Administration Stable Troops Representatives Great Achievement End Of Summer American Troops Representative Government

Author:Joe Biden

“That fatal drollery called a representative government.”

Government Representatives Representative Government

Author:Benjamin Disraeli

“Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.”

Government Presses Representatives Freedom Of The Press Representative Government

Author:Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

“I believe that it is my duty and your duty to teach our children concerning this great God-inspired Constitution, this great law of liberty which he has given to this world, and which was never given before to any nation in any land. Never before has there been a representative government of this kind. Republics have been tried, hundreds of times, thousands of years ago, but never was there anything like this Government.”

“We're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations and we are ending a war not with a final battle but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement”

“If liberty is worth keeping and free representative government worth saving, we must stand for all American fundamentals-not some, but all. All are woven into the great fabric of our national well-being. We cannot hold fast to some only, and abandon others that, for the moment, we find inconvenient. If one American fundamental is prostrated, others in the end will surely fall.”

“The government being the peoples business, it necessarily follows that its operations should be at all times open to the public view. Publicity is therefore as essential to honest administration as freedom of speech is to representative government. Equal rights to all and special privileges to none is the maxim which should control in all departments of government.”

Source: The Royal Art

“When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society is not yet ripe for representative government.”

People Should States Government Too Much Subjects Amount Independence Representatives Savages Ripe Representative Government

Book:Considerations on Representative Government

Source: Considerations on Representative Government

Representative Government Quotes

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Representative Government Quotes