Fascism says what you and I experience as facts or what reporters experience as facts are irrelevant. All that matters are impressions and emotions and myths.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Democracy only has substance if there's the rule of law. That is, if people believe that the votes are going to be counted, and they are counted. If they believe that there's a judiciary out there that will make sense of things if there's some challenge. If there isn't rule of law, people will be afraid to vote the way they want to vote.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Democracy relies on the rule of law to ensure fair voting and judicial effectiveness.
This quote emphasizes the importance of the rule of law in a democracy, suggesting that citizens must trust that their votes will be counted and that an impartial judiciary will uphold democratic principles. Without this trust in the legal framework, individuals may hesitate to express their true preferences in voting, undermining the very essence of democratic governance.
Themes
DemocracyRule Of LawVotingTrustJudicial System
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on the importance of political engagement, this quote can underline the necessity of legal structures.
More from Timothy D. Snyder
All quotes →Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of 'our institutions' unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
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Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.
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If we don't have access to facts, we can't trust each other. Without trust, there's no law. Without law, there's no democracy.
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Totalitarianism is not about some state that appears out of nowhere and suddenly is all-powerful. There can't be any such thing. Totalitarianism starts when the difference between your public life and your private life is effaced.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
The 20th century shows that the form of government that we take for granted, a constitutional democratic republic with checks and balances and a rule of law - that form of government is usually temporary.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
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