There is a real and evident problem of democracy in Georgia, and this was the core reason of my entrance into politics. We have no rule of law. It's absolutely absent.
We have overcome some terrible blows to our democracy, to the future of our democracy, to the future of our nation. We survived the Civil War and the strife that tore this nation apart.
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
Fidel Castro had to sit there while he was given a speech on democracy, something the Cuban people have not been able to hear for 43 years.
Economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-examination or renew the appeal of truly participatory democracy.
Access to legitimate information and thoughtful analysis is the lifeblood of a democracy, the basis of which people make decisions about who they vote for and what they believe in. And if you're only getting half the story, that certainly doesn't lead to an informed citizenry.
Some African leaders actually dare to suggest that democracy is a concept alien to traditional African society. This is one of the most impudent political blasphemies I can think of.
In the EU you have half a billion people who share a common belief in democracy, in rights, in the kind of economic life we want.
The only way back toward a democracy and economy that work for the majority is for most of us to get politically active once again, becoming organized and mobilized.
It is never smart, even in a strong democracy, to declare some debate off limits. In a weakening democracy it is catastrophic.
Trump wants to be the first American tsar. With his hero worship of Putin, his admiration for the apparent omnipotence of the Kremlin, schoolboyish crush on Putin's gangster swagger and his contempt for democracy, Trump wants to rule with his family, taking decisions purely because he's right about everything like a tsar.
I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.
For every African state, like Ghana, where democratic institutions seem secure, there is a Mali, a Cote d'Ivoire, and a Zimbabwe, where democracy is in trouble.
Grant us more powers, not less; grant us more democracy, not less; grant us the tools to move forward because, I can assure you, Puerto Rico will move forward. We did it in the past; we will do it again.
Democracies have to be careful that they do not become so process-driven.
Remember, until the 1970s, the spread of democracy has always been accompanied by the decline of inequality. The more democratic our societies have been, the more equal they have been becoming. Now we have the reverse tendency. The spread of democracy now is very much accompanied by the increase in inequality.
In a mass television democracy - which all of us nowadays have - it is impossible to take basic political decisions with long-term consequences without the public knowing it, without the public understanding at least some of it, without the public forming its judgment, heterogeneous as it may be.
I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.
When Zionism becomes co-extensive with Jewishness, Jewishness is pitted against the diversity that defines democracy, and if I may say so, betrays one of the most important ethical dimensions of the diasporic Jewish tradition: namely, the obligation of co-habitation with those different from ourselves.
I hope that with the success of the transition to democracy in Tunisia that we will export to Egypt a working democratic model.
Democrats believe that when more people vote, it's not just good for our party; it's good for democracy.
Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.
Campaign ads are the backbone of American democracy if American democracy suffered a gigantic spinal injury.
There should be a democracy of voices in literature. There are people who live with a kind of striving and with a certain kind of tenderness - it's not an unusual thing - and maybe that's not written about enough.
Indian democracy has often been likened to the stately progress of the elephant - ponderous in its gait and reluctant to change course, but not easily swayed from its new path when it does.
This country cannot tolerate the fact that someone worked with Russia to undermine our democracy.
For Russia, there is not and there may not be another political option but democracy. However, Russian democracy is... not at all the realization of standards imposed on us from outside.
If you'd come to me in 2012, when the last presidential election was raging and we were cooking up ever more complicated ways to monetize Facebook data, and told me that Russian agents in the Kremlin's employ would be buying Facebook ads to subvert American democracy, I'd have asked where your tin-foil hat was.
It has been well over half a century and I'm glad to say we have taken the right path from authoritarianism to democracy and this is a road of no return.
Obama offers himself as a catalyst by which disenchanted Americans can overcome two decades of vicious partisanship, energize our democracy, and restore faith in government.
The American public believes the Founding Fathers were close to infallible and that, while our political system has its faults, it functions far better than other democracies. But is it true?
You can't put democracy and freedom back into a box.
Filmmaking is a real democracy - it's up to the audience to vote with their tickets.
The state must protect the media. In a democracy, the role of media is very important. In the absence of a credible opposition party, you can rely on the media.
We can no longer take our own way of life for granted - we know that it may be challenged. And we know this, too - and know it ever more deeply - we know that freedom and democracy are not just big words mouthed by orators but the rain and the wind and the sun, the air and the light by which we breathe and live.
The back and forth between the press and government is essential to any good democracy.