Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the idea that citizens often have a role in perpetuating ineffective governance, particularly in a democracy.
P. J. O'Rourke's quote suggests that every government is made up of individuals who may be motivated by self-interest rather than the common good. In a democratic system, this self-interest extends to the populace, implying that the electorate, through their choices and actions, shares the responsibility for their government's shortcomings.
Themes
GovernmentDemocracyResponsibilityPoliticsCitizenship
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a political debate to emphasize the responsibility of voters.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes βAlways read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Similar quotes
The new rule in American politics is that no one can make it to the White House without the Hispanic vote.
Jorge RamosRead
Government is the assumption of authority over a given area and all within it, exercised generally for the double purpose of more complete oppression of its subjects and extension of its boundaries.
Benjamin TuckerRead
I was turned out because I said to Europe no, no, no. That no, no , no has now turned into yes, yes. Two yes's not three because he got the Social Chapter out and he's reserved his position on the single currency.
Margaret ThatcherRead
A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
There's really no point to voting. If it made any difference, it would probably be illegal.
H. L. MenckenRead
Whether it is in the United States or in mainland Europe, written constitutions have one great weakness. That is that they contain the potential to have judges take decisions which should properly be made by democratically elected politicians.
Margaret ThatcherRead