Stephen M. Walt Quotes

Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Are my politics Democrat or Republican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs America; money runs everywhere.

Please don't begin to believe that the American political establishment is anything but a corrupt puppet of oligarchy.

President Junior is the mascot of crony capitalism.

The only accountability-free zone in America: Washington DC.

We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life.

Does it seem like Washington's rigged for the well connected? That's because it is.

In the 1820s, westerners and political outsiders worried that rich men in the east had commandeered the government for their own ends.

Jon Tester became a multi-millionaire in the Senate, even bought a Cosmopolitan Castle on Capitol Hill. I don't want a castle in Washington, and I don't think becoming a senator should make you rich enough to buy one.

Rather than working for all, power and public policy is increasingly influenced by wealthy elites that are able to bend the rules - and hijack democratic institutions - to their favour.

If you look at Washington right now, we do not have a system that the Founding Fathers envisioned, where people go to Washington and be part of the servant class. Instead, we have a permanent political class that fashions itself the rulers of the people.

Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.

Every economy exists, no matter what the level of democracy, has elements of crony capitalism. It's - given human nature and given the democratic structures, which we all, I assume, adhere to, that is an inevitable consequence.

With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, cause that's what really happens.

Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing.

Great wealth took possession of the government. It was reflected in Mr. Harding's selection of a cabinet.

'Plutocracy.' It has a perfect nuance: chilly, inaccessible, icy-rich.

If Americans are worried about money in politics, there is no larger concern than the Clintons, who are cosseted in a world where rich people endlessly scratch the backs of rich people.

I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

We have allowed an unholy alliance of government - the new monarchy - and corporate influence - the new aristocracy - to take control of events in a way that would have made our Founders shudder.

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.

[Referring to the Senate:] ... a bunch of fat cats up there raking in the bucks.

Our democratic system was put in place before we had democratic ideals. The system now provides a playground for special interests, and its democratic structure makes reforms difficult.