At its most basic the democratic contract is a simple one: the right to vote comes with a responsibility to society through tax payments and citizenship.

Society has to change but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.

Human rights commissions as they are evolving are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

Usually if you smile at them and show some interest in the toy they will give it to you. That's a straight up Democrat move!

What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention saved the myth.

Since achieving their independence in 1992 the people of Croatia have built a democratic society based on the rule of law respect for human rights and a free market economy.

So I really would like to see both parties respond to the poor with greater commitment. But I've got to tell you the Democrats I feel are doing a better job in that respect than Republicans are.

We saw what happened in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Carter was a good man with the best of intentions. But he came to Washington without a good working relationship with Democratic members of Congress which played a big part in his administration's problems.

I've thought about it not a lot but I thought my relationship with Congress - the Democrats and Republicans - would help me get some things done. Not everything but at least they'd be willing to try.

What's very important is that we build a space that matters in the world one that operates according to democratic rules and that small and large countries enjoy a good relationship.

The President in talking about freedom and democracy is sparking a wave of very positive democratic sentiment that might help us override both Islamic fundamentalism that has formed in that region and also some of the hatred for our policies of invading Iraq.

We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the Strait to view the election result from a positive perspective to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people.

Political consultants are pugilists masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more well positive.

On the other side I do believe that the rhetoric we are seeing from the Democrats today is unprecedented is a new low in presidential politics and goes beyond political discourse and amounts to political hate speech.