A free press is the cornerstone of democracy; there is no question about that.
My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't really have a function as a useful artist in that anymore.
I have to give moral support to my supporters. If I'm not going to fight anymore, that might hurt the feelings of my supporters. They are fighting for democracy. They are fighting for the rule of law.
Public corruption is the FBI's top criminal priority. The threat - which involves the corruption of local, state, and federally elected, appointed, or contracted officials - strikes at the heart of government, eroding public confidence and undermining the strength of our democracy.
There's not democracy in the workplace. I mean, through most of our daily lives, the idea of democracy is fairly nonexistent. And I think things work better when the people who have to work with whatever it is we're working with have a say in how it's working.
The Senate floor is and always has been the great arena of our democracy. I spent eight years in my younger life as a boxer, and sometimes when I enter the chamber, I think, 'This is the ring. The American people can see us here and listen to our arguments. This is where the fights matter.'
India is a democracy; it is in our DNA.
The media does play a vital role in our democracy, and if we cannot depend on journalistic ethics, the nation's in trouble.
An election in which people have to wait 10 hours to vote, or in which black voters wait in the rain for hours, while white voters zip through polling places, is unworthy of the world's leading democracy.
Democracy is not just constitutional and legislative rules; it is a culture and practice and adhering by the law and respecting international human rights principles.
There is greater income inequality in the United States than in any other industrialized country. Yes, the debt is a problem that must be dealt with. To me, however, the disappearing middle class is even worse - bad for our economy and really bad for our democracy.
'Chinese Democracy' wasn't trying to tell China to have a democracy or anything like that. I don't have an opinion on what kind of government they should have. My thing is, I went to stay there for about three months, and everywhere I went, the people are so shielded from what's going on in the world.
A democracy thrives on diversity. Tyranny oppresses it.
Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.
I think it's obvious that democracy is something that is contagious, and it always has been.
It's like the American democratic system. When you vote, even if your candidate doesn't win, you accept that democracy was in action. When people participate in a Tezos network, they're accepting that the democratic vote of the other coin holders will govern the way the protocol moves.
Democracies domesticate religious groups to become political players. That's how it works.
Margaret Thatcher's government redistributed money from rich to poor. And that's the nature of a modern western democracy.
Look at the structure of the Gates Foundation and this idea that, rather than trying to solve these huge global problems through institutions with some kind of democracy and transparency baked into them, we're just going to outsource it to benevolent billionaires.
I think, in Spain, they are too used to reaching the limits of democracy and then stepping over them.
Political institutions are fair game in political debates in a democracy. Nothing is more fair game, in fact, than political matters of public concern.
I'm worried about the traditional media, but I think the new media is a plus for democracy.
I have the deepest, deepest respect for these guys who are actually fighting for democracy in countries far away.
In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.
Only one American has given his life for Iranian democracy. He was a young idealist from Nebraska named Howard Baskerville. In 1907, fresh out of Princeton, Baskerville went to Iran as a schoolteacher. He found himself in the midst of a revolution against tyranny, and was carried away with passion for the democratic cause.
The problem of the world today is the people talk on and on about democracy, freedom, justice. But I don't give a damn about democracy if I am worried about survival.
Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?
I've always tried to explain democracy is not perfect. But it gives you a chance to shape your own destiny.
We must never stop fighting for a vision of American democracy in which we strive for and encourage the highest levels of voter turnout and participation.
I started as an engineer. I migrated to philosophy and international politics. And I did my studies about African - Africa democracy and democratization in Africa, taking Kenya as a model. And then, while I was doing so in 1996 in South Africa, Al Jazeera was established. So they requested me to be an analyst on African affairs.
Though pundits and politicians, weary of the story, are happy to omit facts about voting systems and their private contractors running our public elections, such omissions impair voters and democracy itself.
I believe I and all the Chinese people have such a conviction that China will make continuous progress and the people's wishes for and needs for democracy and freedom are irresistible.
We should never take democracy for granted. Democracy can emerge and develop, but it can also decay.
Christians - at least Christians in a liberal democracy - have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state.
Domestically, a lot of people think Xi Jinping is becoming Mao Zedong. By giving Hong Kong democracy, people would look at them as enlightened leaders.
I do not believe 'Newsweek' is the only catcher in the rye between democracy and ignorance, but I think we're one of them, and I don't think there are that many on the edge of that cliff.
