When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When scrutiny is lacking, tyranny, corruption and man's baser qualities have a better chance of entering into the public business of any government.
Government can contribute to a shared sense of purpose on the part of the citizenry; that's its highest and best application.
Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.
If we are to build grassroots respect for the institutions and processes that constitute democracy, the state must treat its citizens as real citizens rather than as subjects.
When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants.
Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.
Citizen participation is a device whereby public officials induce nonpublic individuals to act in a way the officials desire.
When government programs fail, it is often because public officials are clueless about how human beings think and act.
You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.
I had to watch government fail for 25 years doing consumer reporting before I really saw it because intuitively, the reaction is problem, bring government and government will make it better.
No opposing quotes found.