{"quotes":[{"text":"The political parties are there to distract us from our systems of government; instead of focusing on the system, we focus on political parties to vote for.Voting is our only encouraged interaction with our systems of government.The choice between political parties fractures our nations yet further, turns our focus on each other, and away from the mechanisms of our systems of government.","author":"Haroutioun Bochnakian","tags":["administration","democracy","division","government","political-parties","politics","society"],"id":304,"author_id":"Haroutioun+Bochnakian"},{"text":"The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.","author":"Thomas Jefferson","tags":["american-government","democracy","power","separation-of-powers","tyranny"],"id":806,"author_id":"Thomas+Jefferson"},{"text":"If I were making a country, I'd get the sewage pipes first, then the democracy, then I'd go about giving pamphlets and statues of Gandhi to other people, but what do I know? I'm just a murderer!","author":"Aravind Adiga","tags":["democracy","gandhi","murder","pamphlet","sewage"],"id":961,"author_id":"Aravind+Adiga"},{"text":"Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another's point of view, but instead were more and more enclosed in our own bubbles. Democracy requires a reliance on shared facts; instead were being offered parallel but separate universes.","author":"Eli Pariser","tags":["citizenship","democracy","dialogue","polarization"],"id":1742,"author_id":"Eli+Pariser"},{"text":"Democracy is probably the only discovery by mankind which mostly brought it only happiness.","author":"Amit Kalantri","tags":["amit-kalantri","amit-kalantri","amit-kalantri-writer","capitalism","constitution","democracy","democratic","dictatorship","governance","government","happiness","human","india","inspirational","laws","mankind","military","ministers","motivational","parliament","philosophy","progress","public-sector","slavery","socialism","system","tyranny","wisdom"],"id":2009,"author_id":"Amit+Kalantri"},{"text":"As I would not be a slave  so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.","author":"Abraham Lincoln","tags":["democracy"],"id":2118,"author_id":"Abraham+Lincoln"},{"text":"Multilate. Ha Ha Ha,' said Nusswan, avuncular and willing to pretend it was a clever joke. 'Its all relative. At the best of times, democracy is a see saw between complete chaos and tolerable confusion. You see, to make a democratic omelette you have to break a few democratic eggs. To fight fascism and other evil forces threatening our country, there is nothing wrong in taking strong measures. Especially when the foreign hand is always interfering to destabilize us. Did you know the CIA is trying to sabotage the Family Planning Programme?","author":"Rohinton Mistry","tags":["a-fine-balance","democracy","emergency","xenophobia"],"id":2229,"author_id":"Rohinton+Mistry"},{"text":"If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues.","author":"Nelson Mandela","tags":["democracy","equality","freedom","peace","unity"],"id":2248,"author_id":"Nelson+Mandela"},{"text":"It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.","author":"Winston Churchill","tags":["democracy"],"id":3755,"author_id":"Winston+Churchill"},{"text":"On coming to America I had the same hopes as have most European immigrants and the same disillusionment, though the latter affected me more keenly and more deeply. The immigrant without money and without connections is not permitted to cherish the comforting illusion that America is a benevolent uncle who assumes a tender and impartial guardianship of nephews and nieces. I soon learned that in a republic there are myriad ways by which the strong, the cunning, the rich can seize power and hold it. I saw the many work for small wages which kept them always on the borderline of want for the few who made huge profits. I saw the courts, the halls of legislation, the press, and the schools--in fact every avenue of education and protection--effectively used as an instrument for the safeguarding of a minority, while the masses were denied every right. I found that the politicians knew how to befog every issue, how to control public opinion and manipulate votes to their own advantage and to that of their financial and industrial allies. This was the picture of democracy I soon discovered on my arrival in the United States. Fundamentally there have been few changes since that time.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["america","democracy","laws"],"id":5455,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":1179,"pages":118,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}