Ivan Krastev

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"Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is [when] people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing."

— Ivan Krastev

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"The Church of TED is very optimistic. Bulgarians are some of the most pessimistic in the world. There are the Happy, the Unhappy and the Bulgarians."

— Ivan Krastev

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"Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust."

— Ivan Krastev

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"Democracy has always been in crisis: democracy is all about practicing the art of bearable dissatisfaction. In democratic societies, people often complain about their leaders and their institutions. The gap between the ideal democracy and the existing one cannot be bridged."

— Ivan Krastev

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"As a rule, governments monitor people."

— Ivan Krastev

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"Before, revolutions used to have ideological names. They could be communist, they could be liberal, they could be fascist or Islamic. Now, the revolutions are called under the medium which is most used. You have Facebook revolutions, Twitter revolutions. The content doesn't matter anymore - the problem is the media."

— Ivan Krastev

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"It is people's willingness to take personal risks and confront the powerful by daring to speak the truth, not the truth itself, that ultimately leads to change."

— Ivan Krastev

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"Remember, until the 1970s, the spread of democracy has always been accompanied by the decline of inequality. The more democratic our societies have been, the more equal they have been becoming. Now we have the reverse tendency. The spread of democracy now is very much accompanied by the increase in inequality."

— Ivan Krastev