Accountability is the essence of democracy. If people do not know what their government is doing, they cannot be truly self-governing. The national security state assumes the government secrets are too important to be shared, that only those in the know can see classified information, that only the president has all the facts, that we must simply trust that our rulers of acting in our interest. Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State
Having created the conditions that make markets possible, democracy must do all the things that markets undo or cannot do. Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs McWorld
We falsely think of our country as a democracy when it has evolved into a media-ocracy. We are a media that is supposed to check political abuse; is part of the political abuse. Orwell Rolls in His Grave, 2003, Danny Schechter
You’ve got someone sitting in New York who is a foreigner who has enormous influence over parliament, enormous influence over the government, enormous influence over the police force ... That really is a subversion of democracy. Max Mosley
Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. Howard Zinn
Fascism: that’s what we’ve had in the United States. We’ve had a union of the government and corporate power ever since the beginning of this country. There’s an element of fascism in that. Howard Zinn
There has always been, and there is now, a profound conflict of interest between the people and the government of the United States. Howard Zinn
The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy; there’s no dictatorship here. Hugo Chavez
It seems to me that liberal democracy in the end is the best arrangements of politics. Francis Fukuyama
There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people. Anthony Trollope, North America, 1862
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. Oscar Wilde
... There are bad times just around the corner,
We can all look forward to despair,
It’s as clear as crystal
From Bridlington to Bristol
That we can’t save democracy and we don’t much care … Noel Coward, There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner, 1953 song
All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy. Alfred Emanuel Smith
They want you to try on democracy ... They are tricking you. This thing called democracy is a trick ... Who the hell you gonna vote for? Louis Farrakhan
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. E B White, New Yorker 3rd July 1944
The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder. Arundhati Roy
All democracies turn into dictatorships – but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea ... That’s the issue that I’ve been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire ... and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? George Lucas
Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them. Robert de Flers and Arman de Caillavet, L’habit Vert 1913
Our democracy is an illusion. It has failed and has caused great suffering. We must not excuse it, but renew it. There must be peaceful resolution ... This axis has no interest in justice. Or in true democracy. It cannot warm to the smile of a child. Or comfort a tear. David Halpin, lecture Alternative View II, ‘The Vortex Sucks Ever Louder’
The fodder will probably be given the choice again of tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee and tweedle. The media will convince them that there are salient differences. But they will each be neo-liberal and in favour of a fascist and expanding European Union. There are weaknesses in the people which render them as lambs and sheeple to psychological slaughter. They have even been educated not to think. And seldom are they inspired to higher things. ibid.
Mickey Mouse postal votes – remember them? Disgusting. ibid.
At the bottom of all our terrified souls we know that democracy is a dying giant. A sick sick dying decaying political concept writhing in its final pain. Network 1976 Network starring Faye Dunaway & Peter Finch & William Holden & Robert Duvall & Wesley Addy & Ned Beatty & Beatrice Straight & Jordan Charney & William Prince & Lane Smith & Marlene Warfield & Conchata Ferrell, Jensen to Beale
Democracy is a device that ensures we will be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt few. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
In a democratic country the public must be master of industry. Hugh Gaitskell
Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable ideas. Gore Vidal
With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a republic based roughly on the original Roman model is that it cannot allow true political parties to share in government. What then is a true political party: one that is based firmly in the interest of a class be it workers or fox hunters. Officially we have two parties which are in fact wings of a common party of property with two right wings. Corporate wealth finances each. Since the property party controls every aspect of media they have had decades to create a false reality for a citizenry largely uneducated by public schools that teach conformity with an occasional advanced degree in consumerism. Gore Vidal
Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale. Gore Vidal
The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of non-violent means to combat evil and advance the good. A J Muste
Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements. Agnes Repplier
The essence of democracy is its assurance that every human being should so respect himself and should so be respected in his own personality that he should have opportunity equal to that of every other human being to show what he was meant to become. Anna Garlin Spencer
There is this very dangerous lag-time when a democracy is being closed down, when people are still in denial understandably; who wants to believe this is happening? The leaders are just no longer engaged in democracy. But parliament still keeps trying to do the dance of democracy. And the people keep trying to do the dance of democracy, and that’s where we’re at right now. Naomi Wolf, author The End of Democracy, radio interview
There is a blueprint to closing down an open society or crushing a democracy. Naomi Wolf, address 11th October 2007, ‘The End of America’
You know the one thing that is wrong in this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say. Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan: In small countries like Chile, Guacamole and Pina Colada democracy is being undermined by unscrupulous men who will use any means at their disposal to achieve their ends.
Ed: That’s the CIA, sir. Spitting Image s1e12, ITV 1984
Democracy is a very bad form of government because the people can be misled ... It’s the rule of the mob. Jordan Maxwell, Matrix of Power
We support democracy when it’s convenient to the interests of the United States of America. Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1997
How can anyone call this democracy? Brian Haw, Oxford University lecture
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H L Mencken
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good. H L Mencken
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. H L Mencken, A Little Book in C major 1916