Authoritarian Government Quotes:

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

- Vladimir Putin

topic: Strengthening, Authoritarianism, Authoritarian Government

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

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

topic: Believe, Heart, Cynical, Utopian, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Real, Political, Disease, Political Ideology, Takeovers

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

topic: Government, Human Rights, Provocative, Shortcomings, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Determination, Mean, Equality, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Government, Differences, Challenges, Authoritarian Government

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

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

topic: Real, Government, Views, Authoritarian Government, Authoritarianism

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

- Thomas Ferguson

topic: Levels, Population, Theme, Depopulation, El Salvador

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

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

topic: Country, Sacrifice, Rights, Authoritarian Government

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

- Paul Samuelson

topic: Two, Government, Democracy, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Disappointment, Political, Facts, Authoritarian Government, Nationalistic

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

- Nick Lampson

topic: Democracy, World, Taiwan, Beacons, Authoritarian Government

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

- Greg Graffin

topic: Running, Dedication, Challenges, Authoritarian Government

America needs fewer laws, not more prisons.

- James Bovard

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

topic: Law, America, Liberty, Authoritarian Government, Authoritarianism

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

- John J. Sweeney

topic: Support, Leader, Globalization, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Football, Fashion, Emotional, Likeable, Affable

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

- Niall Ferguson

source: "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.

topic: Teacher, Strategy, Professors, Authoritarian Government

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

- Franz von Papen

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

topic: Heart, Government, Fulfilled, Authoritarian Government

Why do economists fall in love with authoritarian governments?

- Yasheng Huang

topic: Falling In Love, Motivation, Inspiration, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Integrity, Authoritarian Government

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

source: Source: www.peakprosperity.com

topic: Real, Thinking, Government, Gold And Silver, Gold Coins

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

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

topic: Government, Ideas, Political, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Government, Korea, Choices, Internet Culture, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Gambling, Government, Clothes, Authoritarian Government

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

topic: Family, Sex, Believe, Authoritarian Government, Callous

...As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their "sweetheart deals," to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, corporate globalization needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies. Corporate Globalization-or shall we call it by its name?-Imperialism-needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.

- Arundhati Roy

topic: Dream, Country, Fighting, Confederation, Mutiny

Hong Kong has been the place where the memory of Tiananmen Square lives on; Hong Kong people have become more and more committed in their resistance to authoritarian government, and also, not surprisingly, committed to safeguarding their culture and heritage as something distinct and worth preserving.

- Jess Row

source: Source: www.guernicamag.com

topic: Memories, Squares, Government, Authoritarian Government, Tiananmen Square

When we talk about authoritarianism, we conjure up out-of-date visions from the 1930s. But we are no more likely to do authoritarian government the way they did in the 1930s then we're likely to address or talk or do any of our other business in the way they did it in the 1930s.

- David Frum

source: "David Frum: 'How Donald Trump Could Build An Autocracy In The U.S.'". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep, www.npr.org. January 31, 2017.

topic: Government, Vision, Addresses, Authoritarian Government, Authoritarianism