Politics & Power Quote by Dora Russell

Democracy, Dora Russell implies, is less a set of institutions than a muscle-and like any muscle, it atrophies without use. The bite of the line is in its refusal of sentimental shortcuts: you cannot demand “democratic action” from people trained from childhood to obey, defer, and self-censor. That’s not a moral failing in the young; it’s an indictment of the system that raised them, then blames them for its own design.

Russell’s phrasing carries a quiet but pointed rebuke to reformers who treat democracy as something you can simply announce after the fact, like a policy rollout. “Practising it early” is doing a lot of work: the home, the classroom, the workplace, the youth organization-those are where the habits of argument, compromise, dissent, and shared responsibility are learned. Authoritarian structures don’t just restrict choices; they shape what people imagine is possible, what risks feel survivable, what kinds of speech feel worth the trouble.

The subtext is also strategic. Russell isn’t excusing passivity; she’s explaining why sudden calls for civic courage often ring hollow. When power has long been centralized, “participation” becomes a performance rather than a lived competence. Her argument lands with the clarity of someone steeped in education and social critique: if you want a democratic culture, you don’t start by scolding citizens into bravery. You start by building environments where disagreement isn’t punished and agency isn’t a rare privilege.