One of the distinctions between democracy and other forms of government is that while democracy is messy on the surface, other forms of government are messy underneath.
Referring to the Watergate investigations:
Local government in England is simply too big. Our lowest tier serves an average population of 118,500, while in the U.S. and across continental Europe the figures are more like several thousand.
I think that most people who complain about our government have no idea what they're talking about because they've never been to a country with a bad government.
Consumers, unlike voters, expect an immediate response to their concerns; and companies, unlike governments, do not have the luxury of a mid-term lull.
State and local government are more corrupt and less efficient than the federal government.
We stand a better chance with aristocracy, whether hereditary or elective, than with monarchy.
The Iranian leaders describe the American government exactly the way American analysts describe the Iranian one, as an opaque, factionalized system with competing power centers, over which the president exercises very limited authority.
The worst that can happen under monarchy is rule by a single imbecile, but democracy often means the rule by an assembly of three or four hundred imbeciles.
Our government is a little more chaotic than most other governments in the world.
Examine the history of China for 2,000 years back, and then compare it with the Western history of fifty years! Does the government of these foreign countries present such a record of generosity, benevolence, loyalty, and honesty as ours?
Democracy is an interesting, even laudable, notion and there is no question but that when compared to Communism, which is too dull, or Fascism, which is too exciting, it emerges as the most palatable form of government.
While romanticizing the Senate of yore would be a mistake, it was certainly better in my father's time.
St. Kitts' government is much more libertarian compared with the U.S. It's not even close.
We have shown, given these last three years, that we were succeeding in fighting terrorists. While during the first 30 years of the former governments they didn't.
The problem of South Africa is different than the world thinks. There is no native problem. The native worker gets more than white workers do in England! [...] The South African government is not a police state. It's easier on people than the United States government!
It's the way our founding fathers would have wanted it, if they had founded corporations instead of just a country.
We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I can tell you quite honestly.
I think that the churches do a better job in many respects than the government does in various kinds of things. Extending aid, the helpfulness, and so on, yes.
That some Forms of Government are preferable to others, cannot be doubted; yet neither our Saviour, nor his Apostles have decided where that Preference is due.
I'll be honest, there have been times when I've listened to the rhetoric in Europe where an easy equivalent somehow between the United States and Russia and between how our governments operate versus other governments operate, where those distinctions aren't made.
Canada has a real civil service, which the United States doesn't have, an independent civil service. Canada also has a stronger federal system.
With all the defects in our Constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our government with those of Europe, is like a comparison of Heaven with Hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate station.
