"Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't"
About this Quote
Efficiency is the wrong idol, Moyers suggests, and democracies get in trouble the moment they start worshipping it. The line is built like a concession speech to technocrats: sure, democracy can be slow, messy, procedurally fussy. Then comes the pivot - the “saving grace” isn’t performance, it’s permission. Democracy’s distinguishing feature is not that it always works well, but that it lets you publicly notice when it doesn’t. That’s a low bar in one sense, but it’s also the whole ballgame.
Moyers’ intent is to reframe the usual civic complaint (“government is inefficient”) as a feature rather than a fatal flaw. The subtext is that “efficient” regimes often purchase speed with silence: fewer veto points, fewer messy compromises, fewer dissenting voices, fewer journalists. Democracy’s value is epistemic and moral. It keeps a society capable of self-critique - a feedback loop that authoritarian systems treat as sabotage.
Coming from a journalist, the quote doubles as a defense of the press and the public square. Moyers spent his career arguing that the country’s health depends on scrutiny, not spectacle. In that context, the line is also a warning: if citizens trade accountability for streamlined outcomes, they may end up with a government that looks effective until it fails catastrophically, with no legal or cultural way to name the failure.
The wit is in the paradox: democracy’s “saving grace” is that it institutionalizes complaint. Not cynicism - consent, revised in real time.
Moyers’ intent is to reframe the usual civic complaint (“government is inefficient”) as a feature rather than a fatal flaw. The subtext is that “efficient” regimes often purchase speed with silence: fewer veto points, fewer messy compromises, fewer dissenting voices, fewer journalists. Democracy’s value is epistemic and moral. It keeps a society capable of self-critique - a feedback loop that authoritarian systems treat as sabotage.
Coming from a journalist, the quote doubles as a defense of the press and the public square. Moyers spent his career arguing that the country’s health depends on scrutiny, not spectacle. In that context, the line is also a warning: if citizens trade accountability for streamlined outcomes, they may end up with a government that looks effective until it fails catastrophically, with no legal or cultural way to name the failure.
The wit is in the paradox: democracy’s “saving grace” is that it institutionalizes complaint. Not cynicism - consent, revised in real time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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