Representative System Quotes

How necessary for modern liberty a national representative government is—a representative system comprehending the whole state

The people can never err more in supposing that by multiplying their representatives beyond a certain limit they strengthen the barrier against the government of a few.

Elections by the state legislatures will be better than those by the people.

A government is republican in proportion as every member composing it has his equal voice in the direction of its concerns: not indeed in person, which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a city or small township, but by representatives chosen by himself and responsible to him at short periods.

How is it the community can check ? The community can act only when assembled; and when assembled, it is incapable of acting. The community, however, can choose representatives.

… our representative system has failed.

The United Nations would probably have to rest on two pillars: one constituted by an assembly of equal executive representatives of individual countries, resembling the present plenary, and the other consisting of a group elected directly by the globe's population in which the number of delegates representing individual nations would, thus, roughly correspond to the size of the nations.

State Legislatures were better qualified to elect the Members than the people were

You don't determine what is good policy by polling.

A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted. That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be chosen by chance and against will of all the rest of us, as now.

In 'The General Strike,' we celebrate those who bring a new vision for the world to the table. People who stand for workers rights, human rights, a just representative political system, and a new mode of doing business where sustainability is the norm not the exception.

Elected representatives are so embedded in the basic notion of what constitutes a democratic nation that it has become indistinguishable from any other form of democratic governance.

I want to be represented by people who are thoughtful, self-aware and collaborative. What would a system that elevated such people look like?

Every government, to have a reasonable expectation of permanency, ought to be founded in truth, justice, and the reason of things. Our admirable constitution, the envy of Europe, is founded in injustice. Eight hundred individuals rule all, themselves accountable to none. Of these about 300 are born rulers, whether qualified or not. Of the others, a great many are said to be elected by a handful of beggars instead of the number and property, who have the right to be the electors. And of these pretended electors, the greatest part are obliged to choose the person nominated by some lord, or by the minister.

The energetic action of the times develops individualism, and the religious appear isolated. I esteem this a step in the right direction. Heaven deals with us on no representative system. Souls are not saved in bundles.

… that remarkable body, the most remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics.