Quotes About Authoritarianism

In Belarus, the government is a kind of presidential monarchy with no checks, no balances, and no rule of law.

The fantasy world of Movement Conservatives is no longer fringe talk. The leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination embrace it. They are playing to a chorus of true believers, and they are preaching what that choir wants to hear. They are following the same pattern Eric Hoffer identified as the path to authoritarianism.

Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.

To pretend that former President Donald Trump's Republican Party will act in good faith to preserve democracy is naive.

The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that 'Popery' when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people.

I'm a democrat. I will fight until the end to defend democracy and the will of the people.

If the Chinese government gets carried away with denying basic rights, then there will be a pushback from within.

The radios are going to dictate. That's another fight. That's another story there. I wish they just let it be.

I suppose anyone who calls a dictator a dictator is 'dangerous' and 'imbalanced.'

Dictators don't come from elections.

Corruption empowers and enriches dictators.

This is how dictatorships always behave: they deny reality; they deny crises.

It's very hard to describe an elected government as a dictatorship.

I grew up in a dictatorship in a very Catholic country.

On 'Sound of My Voice,' I was the first and last word, which is kind of a dictatorship. I like collectives, though.

The regulatory systems in place disincentive innovation. It's intense to fight the red tape.

Rather than abide by the rule of law, Maduro and his cronies follow mafia-style practices, intimidating the opposition by targeting their family members.

Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do it in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.

The unpredictability of not having their needs met in a timely, judicious fashion was not only frightening, it was potentially life-threatening.

The human race divides itself politically into those who want to be controlled, and those who have no such desire

A monopoly on the means of communication may define a ruling elite more precisely than the celebrated Marxian formula of monopoly in the means of production.

A society where one set of religious views is imposed on a large number of citizens who disagree with them is not a democracy. It's a theocracy. Yet

Socialism inevitably produces stagnation, corruption and often worse—such as authoritarian government officials who often have an increasing ability to interfere with both the economy and individual lives—which they frequently do to maintain power," he wrote, adding that socialism would be "a disaster for our country.

Assertion, even self-assertion, does not invariably bespeak an urge to annihilate the opposition or to wield coercive power.