Those who govern must see how the people react to administration. Ultimately, the people are the final arbiters.
Lal Bahadur ShastriRead
The rule of law should be respected so that the basic structure of our democracy is maintained and further strengthened.
Interpretation
Respecting the rule of law is essential for the health of democracy.
This quote emphasizes the importance of adhering to the rule of law as a foundational principle for maintaining and enhancing the democratic structure of a society. By ensuring that laws are upheld, the integrity of democracy is preserved, fostering justice and equality for all citizens.
In practice
During a political debate about governance and lawfulness.
Those who govern must see how the people react to administration. Ultimately, the people are the final arbiters.
We can win respect in the world only if we are strong internally and can banish poverty and unemployment from our country.
We cannot afford to spend millions and millions over nuclear arms when there is poverty and unemployment all around us.
If Pakistan has any ideas of annexing any part of our territories by force, she should think afresh. I want to state categorically that force will be met with force and aggression against us will never be allowed to succeed.
I had always been feeling uncomfortable in my mind about giving advice to others and not acting upon it myself.
We believe in the dignity of man as an individual, whatever his race, colour or creed, and his right to better, fuller, and richer life.
There are some militarists who say: βWe are not interested in politics but only in the profession of arms.β It is vital that these simple-minded militarists be made to realize the relationship that exists between politics and military affairs. Military action is a method used to attain a political goal. While military affairs and political affairs are not identical, it is impossible to isolate one from the other.
Efficiency in an assembly requires a solid mass of steady votes; and these are collected by a deferential attachment to particular men, or by a belief in the principles that those men represent, and they are maintained by fear of those men - by the fear that if you vote against them, you may soon yourself have no vote at all.
We say there are people who have worked in campaigns who say that they have lost some - and we call those folks operatives, managers, strategists, consultants; and then there are people who work in campaigns and say that they have never lost, and we call them liars.
The best defence [for a democracy, for the public good] is aggressiveness, the aggressiveness of the involved citizen. We need to reassert that slow, time-consuming, inefficient, boring process that requires our involvement; it is called 'being a citizen.' The public good is not something that you can see. It is not static. It is a process. It is the process by which democratic civilizations build themselves.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is a difficult, hard, full-contact, participatory endeavor.
The two most important things that can be done to promote democracy in the world is first, to bring moral clarity back to world affairs and second, to link international policies to the advance of democracy around the globe.
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