美国旧金山街头（图源：彼得·乔治·彼得森基金会）
民主是美国等国成功的重要因素，但是每个国家都必须寻找自己实现民主的方式。我这样说，是因为民主本质上是一种与人民一起治理国家的制度。这并不要求有国会，有多党制，有选举，将选民视为国王，不一定。
我在巴西受到了很多批评，因为我写了一本书，提出了“中国民主模式”。有些巴西人不乐意听到我这么说，许多朋友也反对我的这种表述。但我认为中国有一种民主的模式，虽然这可能不是巴西应该采用的方式，巴西必须找到一个新的模式，但不一定是美国、法国或日本的模式，何况他们之间的民主模式也大相庭径。美国必须停止认为它采用的民主制度是唯一的模式，世界上还有其他的民主制度，而中国正在努力寻找具有自己特色的制度。
英文原文：
Guancha: In politics, you have consistently advocated for the importance of education in solving Brazil's medium and long term problems. Could you briefly describe your proposal?
Cristovam Buarque:First of all, it's a pleasure to be here, and wonderful to receive this question. Many times, they don't put this question to me. But I think it's very important to talk about that.
For many years, decades, we have been saying to the people, to the world, that the most important thing is the economy, is production. We have been forgetting that education is the main vector of progress. We need education, and not just professional education, but basic education, the education of the whole population. We need that, first of all to give efficiency to the economic process, and we need schools to have the same quality of education, in order to achieve a better social function. Education is basic to the economy and is basic to society. We need education to produce more and we need education to distribute production better. This is what I have been discussing in Brazil during my whole career as a politician.
Guancha: Could you describe the specific challenges facing Brazilian education system?