Following is our list of democratic government quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about what can you say about democracy.
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. — Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy is "government of, by and for the people". — Abraham Lincoln
Popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men. — Camille Desmoulins
Democracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers. — Aristotle
We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. — Alexander Hamilton
No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. — Thaddeus Stevens
Democracy is the most demanding of all forms of government in terms of the energy, imagination, and public spirit required of the individual. — George C. Marshall
Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organisation. — B. R. Ambedkar
A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry. — Thomas Jefferson
The growth of modern constitutional government compels for its successful practice the exercise of reason and considerate judgment by the individual citizens who constitute the electorate. — Elihu Root
A government is just only when the whole people share equally in its protection and advantages. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost. — Aristotle
The essence of a democracy is a free electorate. — Arlen Specter
Short Democratic Government Quotes
We love your adherence to democratic principles and to democratic processes. — Ferdinand Marcos
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. — George Bernard Shaw
The essence of good government is trust. — Kathleen Sebelius
We're not perfect, but we do have democracy. — Hugo Chavez
That government is best which governs least. — Henry David Thoreau
Top 10 Democratic Government Quotes
The world is governed by institutions that are not democratic - the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO. — Jose Saramago
Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. — Ambrose Bierce
For us, the government of Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro is not a government that allows democratic plurality. It does not allow for there to be a real opposition, and that is not democratic. — Nayib Bukele
People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it's only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich. — Jose Saramago
Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly. — Vaclav Havel
Most people would agree that the E.U. is too bureaucratic, not transparent or democratic enough and that it often interferes too much in matters that are best left to national governments. — Nicola Sturgeon
Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it. — P. J. O'Rourke
A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government. — Kenneth E. Boulding
Democratic forms of government are vulnerable to mass prejudice, the so-called tyranny of the majority. — Maggie Gallagher
The government of the German Democratic Republic rejects secret policies. It works for the people, and only the people, so it does not need to keep secrets like the warmongers. — Walter Ulbricht
Democratic Government Image Quotes
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
What Is Democracy Quotes
Persuade your fellow citizens it's a good idea and pass a law. That's what democracy is all about. It's not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society. — Antonin Scalia
In my world, a woman was the most powerful thing that I knew. Still is. A woman made the money in my house; a woman made my food. A woman beat my ass when I wasn't a good kid. Women were behind a lot of what spurred South Africa toward democracy. — Trevor Noah
What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position. — Stokely Carmichael
Love your country, but never trust its government.
In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them. — Carter G. Woodson
Democracy needs support and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. Democratic nations should come together in an association designed to help each other and promote what is a universal value - democracy. — Benazir Bhutto
The government will one day be corrput and filled with liars and the people will flock to the one who tells the truth.
If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be 'Citizens United.' I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I believe that during these times, we should not forget that many sacrificed to regain our democracy. We cannot just keep quiet because that is what happened during martial law. Our dictator then believed that he can do anything to keep himself in power. — Corazon Aquino
Amnesty International continues to report that extra judicial tortures and murders continue. This is not democracy that we are exporting to Mexico, and this is certainly not what the Mexican workers signed up for. — Stephen F. Lynch
You can make peace with an enemy, if the enemy abandons the idea of destroying you. That is the critical test. Democracies fail to understand what I just said. — Benjamin Netanyahu
Democratic Country Quotes
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. — Idi Amin
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. — Edward Bernays
We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country. — Al Gore
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.
And I think to be in NATO for the countries of our region, it means more guarantees for us, it means more responsibility for our common security, but it means fulfillment of all standards of civilized world, like protection of human rights and democratic mechanisms. — Aleksander Kwasniewski
South Africa now needs skilled and educated people to say 'How do we manage and develop this democratic country?' — Thabo Mbeki
My critics always forget to mention that I was democratically elected, the others were not. Everyone in Uganda can challenge me, everyone can vote, the elections are free. Not many countries have achieved what we did. — Yoweri Museveni
Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinkng. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.
The DRC is neither democratic, nor a republic. It is the second-largest country in Africa, bigger than Germany, France, and Spain combined and contains the Congo Rainforest, second only to the Amazon as the largest in the world. — Tim Marshall
We will not hesitate to take any decision that guarantees the country's security and stability in light of our authentic democratic approach. — Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The American spirit wears no political label. In service to others and yes, in sacrifice for our country, there are no Republicans; there are no Democrats; there are only Americans. — John F. Kerry
Democratic Society Quotes
A society with too few independent thinkers is vulnerable to control by disturbed and opportunistic leaders. A society which wants to create and maintain a free and democratic social system must create responsible independence of thought among its young. — John Dewey
Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think. — Noam Chomsky
If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end. — Bayard Rustin
The government's first duty is to protect the people.
I say from time to time that the vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society. And we must use it. — John Lewis
The readings of Soviet society are as many as the experts you speak to. In my view, it's a society that is overdue for measures of democratization and organization. — E. P. Thompson
I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for. — Helen Suzman
If there is no justice for the people, there be no peace for the government.
One of the problems we're facing is, in my view, that there are no globalized, youth-led, grassroots social movements advocating for democratic culture across Muslim-majority societies. — Maajid Nawaz
Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be, for the world, an example of a genuinely free, democratic, just and humane society. — Pope John Paul II
To be human, at the most profound level, is to encounter honestly the inescapable circumstances that constrain us, yet muster the courage to struggle compassionately for our own unique individualities and for more democratic and free societies. — Cornel West
Since achieving their independence in 1992, the people of Croatia have built a democratic society based on the rule of law, respect for human rights, and a free market economy. — Elton Gallegly
Democratic Elections Quotes
We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the Strait to view the election result from a positive perspective, to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people. — Chen Shui-bian
The next time they give you all that civic bullshit about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election — George Carlin
The adoring crowds and overwhelming Democratic support in the 2008 election was based largely on joy at jettisoning Bush and the appeal of electing a superbly qualified charismatic African American leader. — Mary Frances Berry
A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them. Which would include their own government.
100 political parties put together can never defeat the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, come 2015 presidential election. — Patience Jonathan
For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine's democratically elected and pro-Russian president —which he rightly labeled a coup— was the final straw. —
All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. — Harry S. Truman
The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from government.
I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today's vote on Brexit has no constitutional legitimacy. — Jeremy Corbyn
It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people. — Jose Saramago
A man is judged by the company he keeps, and a company is judged by the men it keeps, and the people of Democratic nations are judged by the type and caliber of officers they elect. — William J. H. Boetcker
Democratic Process Quotes
The engineering of consent is the very essence of the democratic process, the freedom to persuade and suggest. — Edward Bernays
Democracy is an objective. Democratization is a process. Democratization serves the cause of peace because it offers the possibility of justice and of progressive change without force. — Boutros Boutros-Ghali
It is not enough to profess faith in the democratic process; we must do something about it. — Ella T. Grasso
The duty of a true Patriot is to protect his country from its government.
We have unleashed aspirations of youngsters. Democracy is not going to go backwards. India is too big a country to be run by one person. We are going to accelerate the process of democratization and I think that is the biggest opportunity for Congress party because that is the DNA of the Congress — Rahul Gandhi
There was a time in the United States when most of our financial institutions were local. Which essentially meant that local communities were able to create their own credit, or their own money, in response to their own needs. We still depended on banks, but it was a much more democratic process. — David Korten
I am happy to note that the BJP as an organization is looking to creatively harness Power of Social Media. We have to ensure our Youth stays engaged in our Democratic process. We have to make our Democratic process accessible to them. Social media is an important tool for this. — Narendra Modi
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
It's important to recognize that expanding the circle of opportunity
and increasing the democratic potential of our own society,
as well as those across the world, is a continuing process of inclusion. — Hillary Clinton
Traffic in Joburg is like the democratic process. Every time you think it's going to get moving and take you somewhere, you hit another jam. — Lauren Beukes
Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business. — Malcolm Stevenson Forbes
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal -- that you can gather votes like box tops -- is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. — Adlai Stevenson
Democracies Have Quotes
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. — Abraham Lincoln
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. — Hermann Goring
In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no 'two evils' exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. — W. E. B. Du Bois
We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. — Bryan Stevenson
People always have been and they always will be stupid victims of deceit and self-deception in politics. — Vladimir Lenin
We have a wonderful history behind us. ... If you are unable to demonstrate to the world that you have this record, the world will say to you, 'You are not worthy to enjoy the blessings of democracy or anything else'. — Carter G. Woodson
We, in Africa, have no more need of being 'converted' to socialism than we have of being 'taught' democracy. Both are rooted in our past -- in the traditional society which produced us. — Julius Nyerere
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. — Woodrow Wilson
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. — Alexis de Tocqueville
Democratic Leadership Quotes
The only difference I ever found between the Democratic leadership and the Republican leadership is that one of them is skinning you from the ankle up and the other, from the ear down. — Huey Long
Is the Labour Party to remain a democratic party in which the right of free criticism and free debate is not merely tolerated but encouraged? Or are the rank and file of the party to be bludgeoned or cowed into an uncritical subservience towards the leadership? — Michael Foot
We had the opposition of virtually the entire Democratic leadership in every state in this country. — Bernie Sanders
The national Democratic leadership is going so far left, they've left America. Don't let them bury the American dream in their graveyard of gloom and envy. — Ronald Reagan
I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses. — Yitzhak Shamir
The Only cure for nihilism is for liberal democratic societies - their electorates, their judiciary, and their political leadership- to insist that force is legitimate only to the degree that it serves defensible poltical goals. Thus implies a constant exercise of due diligence. — Michael Ignatieff
From a parent's right to know what their children are doing, to protecting citizens across the country from the growing threat of gang violence, the House Democrat leadership is simply out to lunch. — Virginia Foxx
When a leader is in the Democratic Party he's a boss. When he's in the Republican Party he's nothing but a leader. — Harry S. Truman
In short, there are certain fundamental requisites for wise and resolute democratic leadership. It must build on hope, not on fear; on honesty, not on falsehood; on justice, not on injustice; on public tranquility, not on violence; on freedom, not on enslavement. — Edmund Ezra Day
When Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990, I felt America's post-Cold War commitment to national principles and international leadership was on the line. I was dismayed by the wide opposition among my fellow Democrats. To me, their position was wrong. — Joe Lieberman
Democratic Republic Quotes
The state is nothing but an instrument of opression of one class by another - no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy. — Friedrich Engels
One of the biggest failures in European line drawing is the giant blank hole known as the DRC. It's a prime example of how the imposition of artificial borders can lead to a weak and divided state, ravaged by internal conflict, and whose mineral wealth condemns it to being exploited by outsiders. — Tim Marshall
No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. — William L. Shirer
To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament-this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics. — Vladimir Lenin
Civility isn't just some optional value in a multicultural, multistate democratic republic. Civility is the key to civilization. — Van Jones
I think we [Americans] are going to look back and realize that the civil liberties that we've given up in the name of security, the authority that we've given Democratic and Republican presidents, all have contributed to a fraying of the fabric of our democratic republic. — Jeremy Scahill
Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic. — John Quincy Adams
I certainly hoped that in the Eastern part of Germany, what was just beginning to be called the German Democratic Republic, you would develop a system of socialism with freedom and democracy. — Stefan Heym
I can't be calm when I drive through sections of Atlanta that look more like Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, than America. — Cynthia McKinney
I can't quite remember the exact moment when I became obsessed with writing a play about the seemingly endless war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I knew that I wanted to somehow tell the stories of the Congolese women caught in the cross-fire. — Lynn Nottage
True Democracy Quotes
True democracy or the swaraj of the masses can never come through untruthful and violent means. — Lal Bahadur Shastri
If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. — Mark Twain
A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother. — Benjamin Franklin
There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. — Hillary Clinton
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government. — Carrie Chapman Catt
Democracy is liberty - a liberty which does not infringe on the liberty nor encroach on the rights of others; a liberty which maintains strict discipline, and makes law its guarantee and the basis of its exercise. This alone is true liberty; this alone can produce true democracy. — Chiang Kai-shek
Women's fight for equal rights is essentially a humanist and peaceful struggle for true democracy, and a higher form of civilization. — Leyla Zana
People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. — Walter Judd
It is not true that democracy will always safeguard freedom of conscience better than autocracy. Witness the most famous of all trials. Pilate was, from the standpoint of the Jews, certainly the representative of autocracy. Yet he tried to protect freedom. And he yielded to a democracy. — Joseph Schumpeter
It is not true that democracy will always safeguard freedom of conscience better than autocracy. Witness the most famous of all trials. Pilate was, from the standpoint of the Jews, certainly the representative of autocracy. Yet he tried to protect freedom. And he yielded to a democracy. — Joseph A. Schumpeter
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Corrupted by wealth and power, your government is like a restaurant with only one dish. They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side. But no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen. — Huey Long
When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious what they had in mind was not democratic. In Britain, you vote for a government so the government has to listen to you, and if you don't like it you can change it. — Tony Benn
If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China. — Chiang Kai-shek
What happened in the Ukraine is that the US supported essentially a coup d’etat in 2014, against the democratically-elected government of Ukraine. We have telephone call transcripts of Victoria Nuland, one of the neocons in the White House, handpicking the new cabinet that was hostile to the Soviet Union. If you look at that, and you put yourself in Russia’s position, and you say: Okay, the United States, our biggest enemy, is treating us as an enemy, has now taken over the government of a nation and made them hostile to us, and then started passing laws that are prejudicial to this giant Russian population. If Mexico did that and then started killing — they killed 14,000 Russians in Donbas, the Ukrainian government — if Mexico did that to expatriate Americans, we'd invade in a second. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of our opponents. — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. — Edward Bernays
Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures. — Thucydides
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. — Aeschines
The Popular Unity government represented the first attempt anywhere to build a genuinely democratic transition to socialism - a socialism that, owing to its origins, might be guided not by authoritarian bureaucracy, but by democratic self-rule. — Salvador Allende
It matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. Thats set out in the Constitution. — Sandra Day O'Connor
When people treat corruption as a routine part of the process, you have something far worse than wrongdoing or moral failing. You have a political cancer that breeds cynicism about democratic government and infects all of society. — Edward Brooke
As a form of government, imperialism does not seek or require the consent of the governed. It is a pure form of tyranny. The American attempt to combine domestic democracy with such tyrannical control over foreigners is hopelessly contradictory and hypocritical. A country can be democratic or it can be imperialistic, but it cannot be both. — Chalmers Johnson
Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior. — Vladimir Putin
There is no more democratic government than a revolutionary government. — Fidel Castro
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. — W. E. B. Du Bois
Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic. — Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats. — Harry Browne
Unemployment is a reproach to a democratic government. — Joan Robinson
For decades now, the Democrats have had a good gig buying the votes of government workers with outrageous salaries, benefits and work rules - and then sticking productive earners with the bill. But, now, we're out of money. — Ann Coulter
Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix. — Harry S. Truman
A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy. — Aldous Huxley
I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless. — Sissela Bok
Well, I certainly hope the Democrats participate. I continue to think that some things transcend politics like the murder of four of our fellow citizens and whether or not you trust government. That is not a red or blue issue. That is an American issue. As for whether or not they boycott, I hope they don't. — Trey Gowdy
There's a lot of things we can do to balance out what Obama's done and going forward show the American people the Republican Party can govern. I want a coalition of tea party people, independents, moderate Democrats trying to find a way to move this country forward before we become Greece. — Lindsey Graham
Bosses are no more inevitable in state and local governments than dictators are in national governments. They will arise and prosper, nevertheless, if true believers of democracy - citizens devoted to the democratic ideals - do not constantly oppose them. — Charles Edison
Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life. — Jimmy Carter
The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government. — Fidel Castro
The president who is most slandered as Hitler will probably prove to be the most zealous advocate of democratic government abroad, the staunchest friend of beleaguered Israel, and the greatest promoter of global individual freedom in our recent memory. — Victor Davis Hanson
In Conclusion
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