Oligarchy Quotes - Page 3

• The oligarchic character of the modern English commonwealth does not rest, like many oligarchies, on the cruelty of the rich to the poor. It does not even rest on the kindness of the rich to the poor. It rests on the perennial and unfailing kindness of the poor to the rich.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Kindness, Character, Doe

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (1909). “Heretics”

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• The billionaires and their super PACs increasingly control the American political process. This is not democracy. This is not what brave Americans fought and died to defend. This is oligarchy. This is government of the few, by the few and for the few. We must overturn Citizen United and move to public funding of elections.

  Bernie Sanders

  Moving, Government, Brave

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• As an American citizen, one has to vote. If we don't vote, we're not doing our part. We'll become some sort of oligarchy.

  Jason Mraz

  Citizens, Vote, Ifs

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• The fear is that we'll move in the direction from being a democracy to an oligarchy.

  Jane Mayer

  Moving, Democracy

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy.

  William O. Douglas

  Hands, People, Economic Globalization

  "United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 7, 1948.

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• We need to change the power structure in America, we need to end the political oligarchy.

  Bernie Sanders

  America, Political, Needs

  Source: www.goodreads.com

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• I am Catholic but I want to say something to the Catholics. Thank you for some of the bishops who live in rural areas, and are still Catholic. These bishops of the Catholic churches still pray for the poor, and pray for their president who works for the poor, while the leaders of the Catholic Church only defend oligarchy.

  Evo Morales

  Leader, Catholic, Church

  Interview with David Hirschman, bigthink.com. September 22, 2010.

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• Democracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers, and oligarchy in which the rich; it is only an accident that the free are the many and the rich are the few.

  Aristotle

  Government, Democracy, Rich

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.301, Simon and Schuster

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• Commercial concerns have expanded from family business to corporate wealth which is self-perpetuating and which enlightened statesmen and economists now dread as the most potent oligarchy yet produced.

  Helen Keller

  Business, Self, Corporations

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• Of governments there are said to be only two forms - democracy and oligarchy. For aristocracy is considered to be a kind of oligarchy, as being the rule of a few, and the so-called constitutional government to be really a democracy.

  Aristotle

  Two, Government, Democracy

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.95, Cambridge University Press

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• Now is the time to alter our government. Now is the time to stop the movement toward oligarchy. Now is the time to create a government which represents all Americans and not just the 1%... No more excuses. We must all become involved in the political process.

  Bernie Sanders

  Government, Political, Movement

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• In many respects, this country is becoming an oligarchy, with a tiny percentage of America owning the media, owning the country.

  Bernie Sanders

  Country, Media, America

  Interview with Ruth Conniff, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 1, 2005.

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• Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

  Aristotle

  Kings, Names, Government

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.299, Simon and Schuster

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• Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

  Lord Acton

  Numbers, Democracy, Aristocracy

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.42, Jazzybee Verlag

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• In the Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to oligarchy.

  Aristotle

  Law, Government, Democracy

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.42, Cambridge University Press

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• The perversions are as follows: of royalty, tyranny; of aristocracy, oligarchy; of constitutional government, democracy.

  Aristotle

  Government, Democracy, Aristocracy

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.91, Aristotle

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• There has never been a communism that worked. They were all dictatorships or oligarchies, every single one.

  David Crosby

  Communism, Dictatorship

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We have retained the forms and phrases of a republic, but in reality we are living under an oligarchy, not of courtesan, but of bureaucrats.

  Frank Chodorov

  Reality, Political, Phrases

  Frank Chodorov (2007). “Income Tax: Root of All Evil”, p.47, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy, with discrimination against Blacks and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan.

  Che Guevara

  Ku Klux Klan, Democracy, Financial

  Ernesto Che Guevara (2013). “The Awakening of Latin America: A Classic Anthology of Che Guevara's Writing on Latin America”, p.256, Ocean Press

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• All governments use force and all assert that they are founded on reason. In fact, whether universal suffrage prevails or not, it is always an oligarchy that governs, finding ways to give to'the will of the people'the expression which the few desire.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Government, Expression, People

  Quoted in Arthur Livingstone (ed) TheMind and Society (1935).

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• People of all kinds are waking up. Even people passionate for Obama realize even that knight on a white horse isn't enough to roll back the oligarchy. I'm seeing a lot of action on the left as well that is never reported. But the Tea Party response is the most visible and the initiative they show is the most recognizable.

  Naomi Wolf

  Horse, Party, White

  "Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism -- Is She Onto Something or in Fantasy Land?". Interview with Justine Sharrock, www.alternet.org. March 29, 2010.

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• Mexico has relied on television for decades to keep the citizens misinformed and in a constant state of stupor. I mean we live in a time where democracy is almost synonymous with oligarchy.

  Andrea Suarez Paz

  Mean, Democracy, Citizens

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• There is always the risk in advocating for democracy that the first people to wake up might not be your team, but that is a risk worth taking. I would rather have citizens I don't agree with organized and active than an oligarchy of people that I agree with.

  Naomi Wolf

  Team, People, Risk

  "Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism -- Is She Onto Something or in Fantasy Land?". Interview with Justine Sharrock, www.alternet.org. March 29, 2010.

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• We use and need to use both systems in complex political societies, and we oscillate in our commitments, because both oligarchy and rule by the will of masses have their bad points, as the ancient philosophers all knew.

  Catherine Wilson

  Commitment, Political, Needs

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Socialism is a fundamentally different social system where the world's resources are not controlled by a greedy, undemocratic oligarchy. This is not the same as the capitalist welfare states that have existed in some European countries.

  Kshama Sawant

  Country, Different, World

  Source: www.socialistalternative.org

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