What Yuval Noah Harari thinks about democracy
Israeli historian and philosopher, born in 1976; author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Nexus; lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co-founder of Sapienship in 2019.
Yuval Noah Harari did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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15 dated positions, 2018 to c. 2024–2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Yuval Noah Harari has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsElections are a central part of the democratic tool kit, but they are not democracy.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordsHolding a conversation presupposes the existence of several legitimate voices. If, however, the people has only one legitimate voice, there can be no conversation.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordsDemocracy and dictatorship aren't binary opposites, but rather are on a continuum.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordsDemocracy is a conversation, and conversations rely on language. By hacking language, computers could make it extremely difficult for large numbers of humans to conduct a meaningful public conversation.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Our readingA democracy should never let all its information concentrate in one hub, government or corporate
Their wordsA democratic society should never allow all its information to be concentrated in one place, no matter whether that hub is the government or a private corporation.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordsSo democracy, it's not like you have democracy and on the side you have these information technologies. No, the basis of democracy is information technology.
↗Yuval Noah Harari: They Are Lying About AI! The Trump Kamala Election Will Tear The Country Apart!youtube.com 1st of 23 in this recording
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Their wordsIt works if you think that the other side is wrong, but they are still essentially good people who care about the country, who care about me, but they have different opinions.
↗Yuval Noah Harari: They Are Lying About AI! The Trump Kamala Election Will Tear The Country Apart!youtube.com 7th of 23 in this recording
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Their wordsthe most sensitive moment in every democracy is the moment of transfer of power.
↗Yuval Noah Harari: They Are Lying About AI! The Trump Kamala Election Will Tear The Country Apart!youtube.com 8th of 23 in this recording
- 18 months earlier
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Our readingThe last and most important line of defence of every democracy is its citizens, not opinion polls
Their wordsBut polls don’t stop dictatorships. History teaches us that the last and most important line of defence in every democracy is you, the citizens.
↗My message to Benjamin Netanyahu: stop your coup or we’ll stop the country (The Guardian)theguardian.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsDemocracy is a deal, according to which citizens must respect the government’s decisions, on the condition that the government respects the basic liberties of the citizens. When one side breaks the deal, the other side doesn’t have to go on fulfilling its part. When a government tries to establish a dictatorship, citizens are allowed to resist.
↗My message to Benjamin Netanyahu: stop your coup or we’ll stop the country (The Guardian)theguardian.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 4 years earlier
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Their wordsIn my home country of Israel, at least for Jews it's a democracy and it's one of the leaders of the world in surveillance technology and we basically have one of the biggest laboratories of surveillance technology in the world, which is de-occupied territories.
↗Mark Zuckerberg & Yuval Noah Harari in Conversationyoutube.com 5th of 9 in this recording
- 7 months earlier
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Their wordsWe should defend liberal democracy, not only because it has proved to be a more benign form of government than any of its alternatives, but also because it places the fewest limitations on debating the future of humanity.
↗Yuval Noah Harari: the myth of freedom (The Guardian)theguardian.com 5th of 5 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThere is nothing inevitable about democracy. For all the success that democracies have had over the past century or more, they are blips in history.
↗Why Technology Favors Tyranny (The Atlantic)theatlantic.com 1st of 11 in this piece
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Their wordsWe tend to think about the conflict between democracy and dictatorship as a conflict between two different ethical systems, but it is actually a conflict between two different data-processing systems.
↗Why Technology Favors Tyranny (The Atlantic)theatlantic.com 7th of 11 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsDemocracy will find it difficult to survive such a development because, in the end, democracy is not based on human rationality; it's based on human feelings.
↗Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it | Yuval Noah Harari (TED)youtube.com 5th of 6 in this recording