Barry Lowenkron Quotes

The PRI can afford to push democratization; it can afford to be generous because it has a very good chance of winning in clean elections.

The elections are the greatest symbol of participation and political reform.

We are not seeking revolution. We just want democracy.

Lebanon is restless, Syria got its walking papers, Egypt is scheduling elections with more than one candidate, and even Saudi Arabia, whose rulers are perhaps more terrified of women than rulers anywhere else in the world, allowed limited municipal elections.

If greater openness is a key to economic success, I believe there is increasingly a need for openness in the political sphere as well.

The free world should not wait for dictatorial regimes to consent to reform.

History suggests that the main obstacles facing Muslims in their attempts to achieve open political systems and democratic governments are 1) a deeply rooted authoritarian political culture, and 2) manipulated interpretations of the Koran.

Does any of you believe that we can solve our country's problems in five years? That is why we do not have this nonsense of elections.

Elections alone will never be enough to ensure good governance.

Build the structure of representative government .… Enfranchise the women …. Establish a free labor movement …. Abolish police oppression …. Decentralize political power …. Separate church from state.

We can’t change our government unless we change the people who run it.

This country has been without stern, sails and wind, and it needs someone at the helm. We are doomed to live in an authoritarian state until genuine democracy, which should not be confused with anarchy, can be set up.

We’re trying to create the first democracy in the Arab world.

If you have an election no mater how free, if you do not have a government that respects people’s rights, you don’t have a democracy.

Religion has both bolstered and undermined stable self-government. It has advanced political reform and human rights, but also induced irrationality, extremism, and terrorism.

Free integral elections should be guaranteed, where values of justice and rule of law also prevail.

Citizens everywhere should be able to choose their leaders in climates free of fear.

You do not turn a country with no democratic tradition into a democracy by just having an election. You must also have democratic institutions like the rule of law.

The essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections

The excellence of the West lies not in its accomplishments in the sciences, arts and technology, but rather, these accomplishments are the outgrowth of the West's respect for the human being, the recognition of his individuality, the liberty it has granted him, and the establishment of government in the service of the people—the government belongs to the people, and they do not belong to it. This is a qualitative change, unprecedented in human history

There is nothing in our government that the ballot cannot remove or amend. It can make and unmake presidents and congresses and courts.... It can sweep over trusts, syndicates, corporations, monopolies and every other development of the money power.

Our concepts of ballot-box democracy may need to be modified to produce strong governments capable of making difficult decisions

A much better course would be a gradual development of democracy, not through general elections, but rather through civil society and the strengthening of local institutions.

Democracy and economic reform go together.

The much abused “shopkeepers” have abolished slavery and serfdom, made woman the companion of man with equal rights, proclaimed equality before the law and freedom of thought and opinion, declared war on war, abolished torture, and mitigated the cruelty of punishment. What cultural force can boast of similar achievements?