“Representative democracy demands a clear division of function between the electors and the elected. The former choose their representatives and retain the essential right of sacking them, if they are not satisfied with their work, at the end of a fixed period. But in the meantime the elected representatives, whether they are members of Parliament or city councillors, should be given full freedom to do their jobs. Any form of referendum is an infringement of this freedom, and the more complex and detailed the issue upon which it is held the more absurd an infringement it becomes.”

— Roy Jenkins

Letter to The Times with Henry Usborne (22 January 1954), p. 7
1950s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Roy Jenkins 51

British politician, historian and writer 1920–2003

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2017

“Representative democracy frequently manifests a disconnect between parliamentarians and the people, so that parliamentarians have agendas that do not correspond with the wishes of the electorate. This has led in many countries to apathy, cynicism and large-scale absenteeism in elections. What is needed is not only parliaments, but parliamentarians who genuinely represent the wishes of the electorate.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas 2013 Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order [
2013

“It is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.”

John Dickinson (1732–1808) American politician

From the first draft of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances passed October 19, 1765 by The First Congress of the American Colonies, also known as the Stamp Act Congress; as cited in John Dickinson and the Revolution in Pennsylvania, 1764-1776, David Louis Jacobson, University of California Press (1965), p. 32

“Violence and intimidation against our elected representatives are a red line in our democracy.”

Gérard Larcher (1949) President of the Senate (France)

Source: Gérard Larcher (2022) cited in: " 'Unacceptable': France's Macron denounces latest MP assault in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/10/unacceptable-france-s-macron-denounces-latest-mp-assault-in-saint-pierre-et-miquelon" in Science Alert, 10 January 2022.

“Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.”

Earl Warren (1891–1974) United States federal judge

On the subject of state Senate apportionment, in Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
1960s

“It was an idea that made the crucial difference between British and Iberian America – an idea about the way people should govern themselves. Some people make the mistake of calling that idea ‘democracy’ and imagining that any country can adopt it merely by holding elections. In reality, democracy was the capstone of an edifice that had as its foundation the rule of law – to be precise, the sanctity of individual freedom and the security of private property rights, ensured by representative, constitutional government.”

Niall Ferguson book Civilization: The West and the Rest

Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011)

“The right to participate in the choice of representatives for Congress includes, as we have said, the right to cast a ballot and to have it counted at the general election whether for the successful candidate or not.”

Harlan F. Stone (1872–1946) United States federal judge

United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 318 (1941).

“That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assembled, for the public good.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Article 6
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

“I was elected represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/01/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord, announcing his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement (1 June 2017)
2010s, 2017, June

“The miners' leaders have said more than once that they are confronting the Government, not the National Coal Board. I believe they may not yet have fully understood the implications of this approach. For it is just not the government—it is the expressed will of the elected representatives of the people in Parliament. That is the main difference between the dispute in 1972 and the dispute in 1973 and I believe that it will prove decisive. For the authority of the elected Parliament is the cornerstone of our democracy, and is recognized as such by the overwhelming majority of people in this country”

Edward Heath (1916–2005) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1970–1974)

Speech in Nelson, Lancashire (22 November 1973), quoted in The Times (23 November 1973), p. 2.
Prime Minister

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