#democracy

Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements. ↗

— Agnes Repplier

#between #contrast #democracy #forever #heroic

We're going to have to forgive a great deal of the Soviet era debt. There's no question about that. Let's face up to that. We're going to have to put in money if Russia is really going to consolidate a democracy. ↗

— Jeffrey Sachs

#consolidate #deal #debt #democracy #era

I think the good old British democracy should keep scrutinising and pressing to get the truth out. ↗

— Clare Short

#democracy #get #good #i #i think

Even if I were knocked down by one gunshot it wouldn't affect our democracy and I wasn't knocked down and I have great confidence in our democracy and in Taiwan and in the people of Taiwan. ↗

— Chen Shui-bian

#confidence #democracy #down #even #great

As opposition leader, [Stephen Harper] wrote in the Montreal Gazette in the year before he came to power: 'Information is the lifeblood of a democracy. Without adequate access to key information about government policies and programs, citizens and parliamentarians cannot make informed decisions and incompetent or corrupt governments can be hidden under a cloak of secrecy.' When he became prime minister, his attitude appeared to undergo a shift of considerable proportions. It often took the Conservatives twice as long as previous governments to handle access requests. Sometimes it took six months to a year. ↗

— Lawrence Martin

#canada #canadian #canadian-government #canadian-politics #censorship

The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies — socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor — and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food. ↗

— John Pilger

#democracy #politics #business

The changes that take place when liberal Democrats replace not so liberal or compassionate Republicans (or Democrats) are merely cosmetic. ↗

— David T. Dellinger

#democrats #elections #republicans #voting #change

It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#citizenship #courage #democracy #free-speech #freedom

But Mather's smile faded as he thought of what other provisions the charter contained. What would the godly say when they learned that the electorate was no longer to be limited to members of the Covenant but broadened to include propertied members of every Christian sect this side of papistry? This was a revolutionary innovation, whose consequences would be incalculable. Hitherto the limitation of the privilege of voting to the elect had been the very corner-stone of theocracy. It had been a wise and human provision designed to keep the faithful in control even when, as had long ago become the case, they were heavily outnumbered by lesser men without the Covenant. God who had not designated the majority of men to salvation surely never intended for the damned to rule. Yet now, under the new charter, it very much looked as if they might. ↗

— Marion Lena Starkey

#democracy #suffrage #theocracy #design

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent. ↗

— Martin Luther King Jr.

#democracy #freedom #marxism #radicalism #rebellion