Democracy Quotes – Reflections on Political Structures

"Freedom can never be completely safeguarded by rules and laws. It is as much dependent on the courage, integrity, and responsibility of each of us as it is on these qualities in those who govern. Every trait in us and our leaders which points to passive submission to mere power betrays democratic freedom. In our American system of democratic government, three different powerful branches serve to check each other, the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Yet when there is no will to prevent encroachment of the power of one by any of the others, this system of checks, too, can degenerate."

Joost A.M. Meerloo

"Name me a country where journalists and politicians get along, and I'll tell you there's no democracy."

Hugh Carleton Greene

"The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system–ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Out of fear for their share of the spoils, the German Republic was born in the grand ducal velvet armchairs and in the pubs of Weimar, not as a form of government, but as a COMPANY. Its statutes do not mention the PEOPLE, but PARTIES; not power, honor, and greatness, but PARTIES. We no longer have a fatherland, but PARTIES; no rights, but PARTIES; no goal, no future, but the interests of PARTIES. And these parties – once again: not sections of the people, but commercial enterprises with a paid bureaucracy, which were to American parties what a junk shop is to a department store – decided to give the ENEMY everything he wanted, to sign every demand, to awaken in him the courage to make ever greater demands, just so that they could pursue their own goals internally."

Oswald Spengler

"When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies."

Ron Paul

"Democracy is a political system that does not guarantee the rule of the people, but rather their exploitation."

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

"We hear statements such as “This is a free country” or “This is a dictatorship where there is no freedom.” However, these are vague assertions in which the meaning of freedom is not real. One person may feel very free in a totalitarian regime, while another living in a democracy may feel the chains of slavery on their shoulders, weighing down every step they take. The chains of slavery only bind our hands: it is the spirit that makes a person free or a slave."

Franz Grillparzer

"Democracy is the worship of jackals by jackasses."

Henry Louis Mencken

"One of the horrors of democracy is that every idiot can invoke it when it suits their interests."

Wiglaf Droste

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you get to vote before you obey orders."

Charles Bukowski

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common except a single word: equality. The difference is considerable: while democracy seeks equality in freedom, socialism seeks equality in restriction and subjugation."

Alexis De Tocqueville

"There are three kinds of tyrants: some obtain their proud position through elections by the people, others through armed force, and others through inheritance."

Étienne de La Boétie

"No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power."

Jacob Bronowski

"Well, of course, the people don't want war. (...) But ultimately, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always easy to get the people to go along with it, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship."

Hermann Göring

"Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense — the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled; if the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live, you are a subject and not a citizen"

William E. Borah

"A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself."

Joseph Pulitzer

"Democracy is just a false idol — a mere catchword and illusion of inferior classes, visionaries and dying civilizations."

H. P. Lovecraft

"Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government."

Walter Lippmann