Quote

What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority.

— Walter Lippmann

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

— H. L. Mencken

Democracy is a daring concept - a hope that we'll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

— Brian Eno

Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

— Plato

Democratic institutions are based on a reality of human nature: that those with power, however benign or even noble their intentions, will do what they can to keep it.

— Rebecca MacKinnon

It has been true in Western societies and it seems to be true elsewhere that you do not find democratic systems apart from capitalism, or apart from a market economy, if you prefer that term.

— Peter L. Berger

Democracy may mean something more than a theoretically absolute popular government, but it assuredly cannot mean anything less.

— Herbert Croly

People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it's only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich.

— Jose Saramago

✗Opposing Perspectives

A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.

— A. Philip Randolph

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

— James Madison

The whole idea of a democracy is that we ourselves, the people, are supposed to make a path of our politics, and it is we who with our feet and our vote and our labors and our vigilance are supposed to shape our country.

— Eugene Jarecki