Economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-examination or renew the appeal of truly participatory democracy.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear.
Without an educated populace, democracy cannot sustain itself.
The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life - is to become cynical about the future and lose hope.
Democracy actually requires that the whole public be able to see common problems and address them and step outside of their own sort of narrow self-interest to do so.
If we don't have a vigorous questioning, aggressive journalistic community and mythology, democracy itself is in great jeopardy.
Democracy, loudly upheld as a cure for much of the ailing world, has proved no guarantor of political wisdom, even if it remains the least bad form of government.
The beauty of democracy is that an average, random, unremarkable citizen can lead it.
We should not be surprised that democracy is imperfect even in Western countries.
The problem is there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators.
In a mass television democracy - which all of us nowadays have - it is impossible to take basic political decisions with long-term consequences without the public knowing it, without the public understanding at least some of it, without the public forming its judgment, heterogeneous as it may be.
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