Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes
We need a strong state but we need a democratic one.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian President, Interview, ABC This Week, January 2, 2000
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There are some who have argued that the United States 20th century of world dominance was an empire. Perhaps so, but it did not have most of the characteristics that Thucydides and most others thought of as characteristics of empire—occupation of nations, rule by the Imperial country, privilege in other nations of the Empire, control. Most important, in historical empires, money—in the form of taxes or goods was commandeered by the Empire for the mother country. The US taxed no one, and money flowed the other way in the most generous sharing of foreign aid in human history. The United States had great influence and was able to exert economic and sometimes military pressure on many nations of the world; American culture was adopted by many nations, but America rarely behaved as Empires historically did.
Arias abolished the army in Costa Rica.
Commenting on the concept of democracy and it's lack of Biblical justification:
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Russian and former Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He was also the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, serving as the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism, although he had moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.
