Moses I. Finley (1912–1986) American historian
Source: Democracy Ancient And Modern (Second Edition) (1985), Chapter 4, Socrates and After, p. 140
Why We Must Not Reelect President Bush (2004)
Moses I. Finley (1912–1986) American historian
Source: Democracy Ancient And Modern (Second Edition) (1985), Chapter 4, Socrates and After, p. 140
Robert A. Dahl (1915–2014) American political scientist
After the Revolution? (1970; 1990), Ch. 3 : Democracy and Markets
José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
Quoted in Evans, 2002, p. 13, as reported in Fundamentals of action research, Vol. I (2005), p. 305.
“Rightfulness hath two fair properties: it is right and it is full.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress
The Third Revelation, Chapter 11
Context: Rightfulness hath two fair properties: it is right and it is full. And so are all the works of our Lord God: thereto needeth neither the working of mercy nor grace: for they be all rightful: wherein faileth nought.
“Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.”
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian
“Every special interest is entitled to justice-full, fair, and complete”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: Now, this means that our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics. That is one of our tasks to-day. Every special interest is entitled to justice-full, fair, and complete — and, now, mind you, if there were any attempt by mob-violence to plunder and work harm to the special interest, whatever it may be, that I most dislike, and the wealthy man, whomsoever he may be, for whom I have the greatest contempt, I would fight for him, and you would if you were worth your salt. He should have justice. For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation.
“The essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny.”
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Barack Obama: "Address to the Ghanaian Parliament in Accra, Ghana," July 11, 2009. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86395&st=&st1= <br class="br">2009 <br class="br">Context: Now, make no mistake: History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen; it needs strong institutions. Now, America will not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation. The essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny.
“Democracy is essentially a political system that recognizes the equality of humans before the law.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
Address to Constituent Assembly, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/education/bsa/citizenship_merit_badge/eisenhower_citizenship_quotations.pdf (8 August 1946) <br class="br">1940s
“The Soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Speech (July 1988)
1980s