Authoritarian Government Quotes

• We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

  Lionel Trilling

  Believe, Heart, Cynical

  "Partisan Review: 50th Anniversary Edition", ed. William Philips, 1985.

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• Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in promoting fear, a sense of the imminence of takeover by aliens and real diseases are useful material.

  Susan Sontag

  Real, Political, Disease

  Susan Sontag (2013). “Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors”, p.107, Penguin UK

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• History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior.

  Vladimir Putin

  Government, Human Rights, Provocative

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• Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchical order.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Determination, Mean, Equality

  "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich August von Hayek, (Ch. 11), 1944.

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• Democracy acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle differences peacefully. Authoritarian governments see criticism of their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Government, Differences, Challenges

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• If people want consultative government, the price is increased complexity and delay in arriving at decisions. If they want speed of government, then they must accept a greater degree of authoritarianism. I suspect that the real answer is that most people prefer the latter so long, that is, as government's decisions conform with their own views.

  John James Cowperthwaite

  Real, Government, Views

  Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (p. 215), March 27, 1968.

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• There is a single theme behind all our work-we must reduce population levels.

  Thomas Ferguson

  Levels, Population, Theme

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• We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about.

  Ai Weiwei

  Country, Sacrifice, Rights

  "David Cameron, as you visit China please listen to us" by Ai Weiwei, www.theguardian.com. November 7, 2010.

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• Asia's governments come in two broad varieties: young, fragile democracies - and older, fragile authoritarian regimes.

  Paul Samuelson

  Government, Two, Democracy

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• The strengthening of our statehood is, at times, deliberately interpreted as authoritarianism.

  Vladimir Putin

  Strengthening, Authoritarianism

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• Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Disappointment, Political, May

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• Free nations of the world cannot allow Taiwan, a beacon of democracy, to be subdued by an authoritarian China.

  Nick Lampson

  Democracy, Taiwan, World

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• The thread of culture that runs through the entire history of punk is also a dedication to challenging the authoritarian.

  Greg Graffin

  Running, Dedication, Challenges

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• America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy. We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government .

  James Bovard

  Government, Law, America

  James Bovard (1994). “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty”, p.6, Palgrave Macmillan

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• In its current form, globalization cannot be sustained. Democratic societies will not support it. Authoritarian leaders will fear to impose it.

  John J. Sweeney

  Hymns, Support, Leader

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• Leadership must be likeable, affable, cordial, and above all emotional. The fashion of authoritarian leadership is gone. Football is about life. You can't be angry all day.

  Vicente del Bosque

  Football, Fashion, Emotional

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• As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet.

  Niall Ferguson

  Teacher, Strategy, Professors

  "Niall Ferguson: 'The left love being provoked by me ... they think I'm a reactionary imperialist scumbag" By Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. April 11, 2011.

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• The hope in the hearts of millions of national socialists can be fulfilled only by an authoritarian government.

  Franz von Papen

  Heart, Government, Fulfilled

  "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression". Office of the United States Chief of Counsel For Prosecution of Axis Criminality publication, Volume 2, p. 919, 1946.

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• Why do economists fall in love with authoritarian governments?

  Yasheng Huang

  Falling In Love, Motivation, Inspiration

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• It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Integrity

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• When people become frightened, they look for things of real value. They will go to monetary metals, gold and silver, and they will buy other things, such as buying property. But no matter what we have, whether we have our gold coins or we have our property, if we have an authoritarian government, that is our greatest threat. So, I would like to think that there is no perfect protection, other than shrinking the size and scope and power of government, so that we can be left alone and take care of ourselves.

  Ron Paul

  Real, Thinking, Government

  Source: www.peakprosperity.com

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• Authoritarian governments are now trying to ensure that the increasingly free flow of ideas and information through cyberspace fuels their economies without threatening their political power.

  Ian Bremmer

  Government, Ideas, Political

  "Democracy in Cyberspace". Foreign Affairs, November/December 2010.

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• North Korea aside, most authoritarian governments have already accepted the growth of the Internet culture as inevitable; they have little choice but to find ways to shape it in accord with their own narratives - or risk having their narratives shaped by others.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Government, Korea, Choices

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• Someone is going to figure out how to make this work and when they do, all the anti-gambling, over-regulating authoritarian governments will be exposed as emperors without clothes. It might not be obvious that this is even happening at first, since these systems are by definition stealthy affairs.

  Calvin Ayre

  Clothes, Gambling, Government

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• The family is the basic cell of government: it is where we are trained to believe that we are human beings or that we are chattel, it is where we are trained to see the sex and race divisions and become callous to injustice even if it is done to ourselves, to accept as biological a full system of authoritarian government.

  Gloria Steinem

  Family, Sex, Believe

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