Simon Sebag Montefiore Quotes

You cannot apply your high standards to a country [Egypt] burdened with decades of autocratic rule. Our democracy is still in its infancy.

Burma is not yet a full-fledged democracy. We have started working on the road to full democracy. We have a lot of things to do in order to build a democratic structure and to be become a full-fledged democracy.

Where nationalism is the main issue, the demand for democracy always takes second place.

The willingness of local elites to cope with the uncertainty of fully competitive politics will thus be the ultimate factor in determining whether competitive authoritarianism proves a way station for democratic development or a safe house for autocrats. .

We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's a Thomas Jefferson hiding behind some rock or a James Madison beyond one sand dune.

I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.

I left Russia in 1993 optimistic that democracy had taken hold despite the obstacles.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

It's actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

Getting rid of the dictator is only a first step in establishing a free society. The dictatorship must also be disassembled.

We believe that this is not right for a democracy to make revolutions the beacon of promoting democracy.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

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.

Of course, I grew up in Communist Romania, but I am happy to say that now our country is democratic, and prospering, since the revolution in 1989.

One is actually the democracy here, you know, people are, people assume that this election means that there is democracy in Pakistan. There is no democracy.

My experience and what scant understanding of politics I possess have convinced me that our peoples will only find well-being under compulsion; but my repugnance for compulsion is so great that I am loath to employ it even to achieve their well-being.

Democratization is not necessarily the best way to fight Islamic extremism, because the transition to democracy has been found to be an especially vulnerable period for states across the board.

Striking a balance between governability and historical reckoning is most difficult during the early years of a democratic transition.

A global government would almost by definition abusive. As someone who escaped from Communist government, how would I escape from global government.

Mussolini is continuing the task of Thomas Jefferson.

I worry that a democratic transition in this period for a state like the U.a. E. would put, us in the throes of reactionary conservatism, probably for the next 30 or 40 years. I look at what is happening in Egypt and other places, and I wonder, do I need that kind of transition?

We had a revolution 2 years ago, and we see a people moving from a completely authoritarian system into a democracy. They don’t know how democracy works. They don’t know the ingredients of a democracy.

The Ennahda-led government did something never before seen in the region: it willingly stepped down

Let's not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don't.

I cut my teeth as a journalist writing about societies that didn't have democracy.