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The first and continuing
argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age
was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not
attend school. -- Grace
Abbott |
“We
need to be activating deep democracy because democracy is fleeting through our
fingers, and most people are unaware of it. Democracy is about dispersing power
among the interconnected people. As a people, we need to rise to the level of
forcing our leaders to abide by our stated principles - really exercise democracy,
not only on our behalf but on behalf of the world. We need to continue, as part
and parcel of the American experience created by the founding forefathers, and
now the foremothers, to insist, "We want democracy to work, and that means every
voice counts."
-- Dr. Azizah al-Hibri
The
USA was founded in the name of democracy, equality and individual freedom, but
is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for all.
-- Amnesty International
"No
one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes
that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth.
A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline." -- Kofi
Annan "Education
is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones
of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development." ~ Kofi
Annan | 
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“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy,
they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the
utmost.” -- Aristotle
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So
long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights,
we'll be called a democracy. -- Roger
Nash Baldwin |
 |
Now the first step has to
be taken, the step towards democracy. This step is full of risks, and requires
trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But if we just stand still,
we will have no chance of escaping the violence. -- Daniel
Barenboim |
| |
"Anti-democracy...is
a virus that exists, and pro-democracy is the antibody to that virus, and I think
we have to become vigilant, and we have to stay on top of the issues of democracy
and freedom." -- Harry
Belafonte |
Democracy
is the ultimate, positive revolution because it gives each and every individual
the power to control their lives. And we can work together to create a just, sustainable
world.
-- Bill Blackman
"We
can have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated
in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both."
-- Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"The only title
in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Democracy
is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.
-- Albert
Camus
...
the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political
importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth
of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
-- Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
*
Everybody
counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every
responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or
creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.
-- Carrie Chapman Catt |

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*
The
real world of American society is one which it is very misleading to call simply
a democracy. Of course, it is in a sense a democracy, but it is one in which there
are enormous inequities in the distribution of power and force. For example, the
entire commercial and industrial system is in principle excluded from the democratic
process, including everything that goes on within it -- Noam
Chomsky | 
|
Representative
democracy, as in, say, the United States or Great Britain, would be criticized
by an anarchist of this school on two grounds. First of all because there is a
monopoly of power centralized in the State, and secondly -and critically - because
representative democracy is limited to the political sphere and in no serious
way encroaches on the economic sphere. Anarchists of this tradition have always
held that democratic control of one?s productive life is at the core of any serious
human liberation, or, for that matter, of any significant democratic practice.
That is, as long as individuals are compelled to rent themselves on the market
to those who are willing to hire them, as long as their role in production is
simply that of ancillary tools, then there are striking elements of coercion and
oppression that make talk of democracy very limited, if even meaningful.
-- Noam Chomsky
 | "Democracy
is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans
do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules.
Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy -- government by wealthy people. Certain
people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US
without lots of money."
-- Ramsey Clark |
"If
our modern world should be able to recapture this power, the earth's natural resources
and web of life would not be irrevocably wasted within the Twentieth century…..True
democracy founded in neighborhoods and reaching over the world become the realized
heaven on earth. And living peace, not just an interlude between wars, would be
born and would last through the ages."
-- John Collier
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“In
a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the
ultimate responsibility.” -- Norman
Cousins |
| *
I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media,
a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that. -- Walter
Cronkite It
seems to rise again when the crisis times come, and this is a time of most severe
crisis, as we all know, not just for the history of the United States and the
survival indeed of our democracy, but for the future peace of the world. And never
before probably has the need for interfaith commitment been nearly as great as
it is at this very moment. -- Walter
Cronkite |

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We
have a global economy that is not structured around democratizing and including
people in the decision-making. It's operated in secret. -- Kevin
Danaher |