Political Stability Quotes

“But belief in a system cannot be sustained for ever. Empires based solely on power and domination, while allowing their subjects to do as they will, can last for centuries. Those that try to control the everyday lives of their people are much harder to sustain.”
― Paul Kriwaczek, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

“A hugely complicated, centrally planned, social and economic system can only be kept on the rails for as long as people believe in it.”
― Paul Kriwaczek, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

“For a patrimonial state to be stable over time, it is best ruled with consent, at least with consent from the largest minority, if not from the majority. Instinctive obedience must be the norm, otherwise too much effort needs to be put into suppressing disaffection for the regime's wider aims to be achievable. Consent is, however, not always easy to obtain. The collective view of most societies is rather conservative: in the main people prefer to see the social arrangements of their youth perpetuated into their old age; they prefer that things be done in the time-honoured way; they are suspicious of novelty and resistant to change. Thus when radical action must be taken, for whatever reason, a great burden falls on the ruler, the father-figure, who has to overcome this social inertia and persuade his subjects to follow his lead. In order that his will shall prevail, he needs to generate huge respect, preferably adulation, and if at all possible sheer awe among his people.”
― Paul Kriwaczek, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization

“The apex of Egypt's Middle Kingdom had redefined the powerful hydraulic nation. The catastrophe that marked the end of this period of prosperity and regional integration appears to have been a climate-induced migration crisis. it contained a crucial insight that would go unheeded by most subsequent hydraulic hegemons: In the relationship between water and society, the resilience of the state is not just a function of its proficiency in harnessing its own resources; it is equally a function of all others in the system succeeding at doing the same.”
― Giulio Boccaletti, Water: A Biography