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The failure to understand that unification and division are a part of the same process has produced some illusions about politics.

— Elmer Eric Schattschneider The Semisovereign People (1960)

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More quotes by Elmer Eric Schattschneider

Democracy is a political system for people who are not sure that they are right.

Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)

In the nature of things a political conflict among special interests is never restricted to the groups most immediately interested.

The Semisovereign People (1960)

Democracy begins as an act of imagination about people. For this reason democracy is a doctrine of social criticism.

Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)

Sectionalism tends strongly to depress party organization because elections in one-party areas are won not by competing with the opposition party but by eliminating it.

The Semisovereign People (1960)

There is a perpetual effort of the parties to isolate each other. To say it crudely, all radical proposals for the re-organization of American politics propose to isolate the rich.

The Semisovereign People (1960)

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Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Albert Einstein

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.

Benito Mussolini

Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Elmer Eric Schattschneider (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.