Weak Governance Quotes

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish.

States with shallow domestic legitimacy tend to fail when they lose foreign support.

Lots of the free world has become weak. When you look at Brussels, when you look at the way they've handled things from law enforcement standpoints, when you look at Paris, when you look at so many other places, no, it's not. But neither is the United States a safe place, because we're allowing thousands of people to come in here. Nobody knows where they're from. Nobody knows who they are and they're coming in here by the thousands. And let me tell you something, we're going to have problems just as big or bigger than they've got.

The Iraqi people are living a long-running tragedy because of the legacy of the old regime, the Americans and their actions that are unsuitable for Iraqi society, and the weakness of national resolve.

A country without a strong leader will go down.

We live in a time of mediocre leadership—political and intellectual.

The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as 'failed states.'

The speed with which we in the Congress are going down is sometimes frightening. Government administration in the districts is rapidly reaching a low level. No strong opposition party has been able to emerge.

It seems that the reins of government are held with too feeble a hand..

When governments become weak, troubles are certain to erupt.

We think our leadership has been too timid to go after corruption, and often times, they bow to the liberal progressive demands of the White House instead of standing up for our values.

Where the Government is weak, military sway prevails.

Germany has become the economic heart of Europe because our leaders are weak.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

If you look at weak democracies, the oligarchies that have taken undue control of them always seek to tamper with the vote. It is important for oligarchs to have elections to give their guy a veneer of legitimacy - and important for the vote always to turn out 'their way.'

The whole macho thing has to be reexamined. Because in my view, the Bush administration was weak, not strong. To engage in a policy of torture is a weak policy. Because ultimately, it encourages the terrorists. It undermines our own values. It corrupts our system. And it doesn't get good intelligence.

A nation that cannot preserve itself ought to die, and it will die - die in the grasp of the evils it is too feeble to overthrow

A half-starved limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step.

American government has seemed to mean naught but impotence and unavailing words.

Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it fulfills only a third of the role.

Terrorism can go anywhere where there is not strong government, or government that cannot control its hinterlands.

… a degeneracy of representation in the great council of America .… Many members of it are no doubt men in every respect, fit for the trust, but this cannot be said of it as a body. Folly, caprice a want of foresight, comprehension and dignity, characterize the general tenor of their actions…. Their conduct with respect to the army especially is feeble indecisive and improvident

There's no excuse for the macro corruption, but Afghanistan was always an informal society with a weak central government.

While the American proposals for the limitation of [opium] production may have been theoretically sound, the United States ignored the practical obstacles in the way of their achievement. In one sense these proposals were unfair, since they transferred the responsibility for suppressing the international drug traffic from the strong countries to lamentably weak governments such as those of China, Persia and Turkey. Financially, the United States stood to lose nothing and to gain everything by the acceptance of its proposals. The producing countries, as well as the governments of territories where smoking prevails, would on the other hand be obliged to give up revenues amounting to millions of dollars a year. In other words, the United States asked from the remainder of the world sacrifices which entailed no hardships for herself.