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It is the losers in intrabusiness conflict who seek redress from public authority. The dominant business interests resist appeals to the government. The role of the government as the patron of the defeated private interest sheds light on its function as the critic of private power relations.

— 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)

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

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)

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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.