Politics Quotes

"Political action is the most human of all activities because it requires both thought and speech."

"The most dangerous form of government is the one that rules through the manipulation of language."

"Political liberalism seeks common ground among citizens with different comprehensive doctrines."

"Public reason requires justifying laws by principles all citizens can accept."

"Reasonable pluralism is a permanent feature of democratic societies."

"Citizens should regard laws as legitimate only if justified by public reasons."

"Legitimacy requires that political power be exercised according to principles all can accept."

"Public institutions should be structured to ensure fair terms of cooperation."

"Democratic legitimacy requires justifying laws through public reasons accessible to all."

"The principles of justice reflect an ideal of citizenship and social cooperation."

"The state of exception is not a space outside the law; it reveals the structure of law itself."

"Politics is not primarily about morality or economics, but about distinguishing friend from enemy."

"A political entity cannot abandon the friend-enemy distinction without ceasing to be political."

"Liberalism has never been able to develop its own theory of the state and sovereignty."

"Democracy is not primarily concerned with equality of conditions but with homogeneity of the people."

"The constitution is not merely a law but a fundamental political decision."

"Neutrality is impossible; every position is ultimately a political position."

"Every constitution presupposes a constituent power that cannot itself be constituted."

"Partisan conflict reflects fundamental disagreement about the nature of the political order itself."

"The concept of the people is never politically innocent."

"Representation is not a reflection of the people's will but its production."

"Politics cannot be reduced to economics without ceasing to be politics."

"Bureaucracy attempts to eliminate decision through procedure, but decision always returns."

"Civil war is the endpoint of liberal ideology, for it reveals what liberalism denies."

"The grand alliance against a common enemy obscures deeper incompatibilities."

"The protection of minorities becomes politically problematic when they refuse assimilation."

"Fascism was an attempt to create a new form of politics that liberalism could not contain."

"A constitution that cannot be suspended is a constitution that has abdicated power."

"Democratic majorities have no inherent limit to their power over minorities."

"The attempt to transcend politics through cosmopolitan law is itself a political project."