The Holocaust also shows us how a combination of events and attitudes can erode a society's democratic values.
At its most basic the democratic contract is a simple one: the right to vote comes with a responsibility to society through tax payments and citizenship.
Society has to change but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.
Human rights commissions as they are evolving are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.
What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention saved the myth.
Since achieving their independence in 1992 the people of Croatia have built a democratic society based on the rule of law respect for human rights and a free market economy.
We saw what happened in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Carter was a good man with the best of intentions. But he came to Washington without a good working relationship with Democratic members of Congress which played a big part in his administration's problems.
What's very important is that we build a space that matters in the world one that operates according to democratic rules and that small and large countries enjoy a good relationship.
The President in talking about freedom and democracy is sparking a wave of very positive democratic sentiment that might help us override both Islamic fundamentalism that has formed in that region and also some of the hatred for our policies of invading Iraq.
We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the Strait to view the election result from a positive perspective to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people.
To balance China the democracies will need new friends - and India with its fast-growing economy youthful population and democratic politics seems the obvious candidate.
There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy grassroots organizing and electoral politics.
I... grew up in politics and I used to work for the Democratic Party.
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is I think the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be for the world an example of a genuinely free democratic just and humane society.
A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss in the Republican Party he is a leader.
The plan shows that the twenty million people in the German democratic Republic and in the democratic sector of Berlin think only of peace and that they are working for freedom and peaceful prosperity.
I am deeply concerned that without peace and a two-state solution the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel is in danger. That's why I have opposed Israel's settlement policy since 1973 and that's why I have favored a two-state solution since 1967.
Israel welcomes the wind of change and sees a window of opportunity. Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace. Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbours' lives mean improvements to the neighbourhood in which we live.
I know that if the peace movement takes its message boldly to the Negro people a powerful force can be secured in pursuit of the greatest goal of all mankind. And the same is true of labor and the great democratic sections of our population.
I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House agreement.
If I could write a story that would do for the Indian one-hundredth part what 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' did for the Negro I would be thankful the rest of my life.