Daily Inspiration Quote by Alan Bullock

Bullock’s line punctures democracy’s favorite self-myth: that it runs on rhetoric. In an era that still romanticizes the lone statesman at the podium, he drags attention to the unglamorous engine room where power is actually processed. The verb choice matters. “Making speeches” is passive performance; “making committees work” is coercive craftsmanship. One is applause-ready; the other is bargaining, scheduling, drafting, revising, and swallowing compromises that disappoint everyone just enough to pass.

As a historian of 20th-century politics, Bullock knew how easily democratic legitimacy gets confused with democratic functioning. Parliaments and congresses don’t fail because citizens can’t be inspired; they fail when institutions can’t metabolize conflict into decisions. Committees are democracy’s digestive system: slow, repetitive, sometimes unpleasant, but the place where pluralism becomes policy rather than just posture. The quote’s subtext is mildly accusatory toward both politicians and voters who treat politics like theater and then act shocked when the plot doesn’t resolve.

There’s also a warning here about modern media ecosystems. Speeches are designed for capture: a clean clip, a viral line, a moral stance. Committees are designed for entanglement: expertise, testimony, iterative drafts, procedural constraints. Bullock is implicitly arguing that democratic virtue isn’t purity or eloquence; it’s stamina for process and tolerance for the fiddly legitimacy of rules. If democracy feels disappointing, he suggests, that may be evidence it’s doing its real job: forcing people who disagree to build something together anyway.