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Power (social and political)

Monday 2nd of March 2026

Political power Whites have feared the political power of people of color more so than voters of color have recognized their power. Gilda R. Daniels, Uncounted  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Although they have amassed immense power and wealth, Putin and his immediate circle remain intensely resentful of the way in which the Soviet Union, Russia and their own service [the KGB] collapsed in the 1990s — and  great power mixed with great resentment is one of the most dangerous mixtures in both domestic and international politics. Anatol Lieven, Financial Times, March 11, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power America is going through a familiar phase in  the lifespan of empires, where the hard power fades and the softer kind grows. … How does this happen? How does a declining power continue to captivate? Because of, not despite, the decline. When a nation no longer has  unilateral control over the things that matter, it is easier to embrace its cultural products. Resentment doesn’t get in the way.  You can patronise in both senses of that verb. And so the world has come to think about America to a degree that is now out of proportion with its effective power. No one wins from this. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, April 20, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Power  Any discussion of power is now, ultimately, a conversation about attention and how we extract it, wield it, waste it, abuse it, sell it, lose it and profit from it. Charlie Warzel, New York Times, February 4, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power The benefit of controlling a modern state is less the power to persecute the innocent, more the power to protect the guilty. Unnamed speaker quoted by David Frum in “How to Build an Autocracy” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power By astronomical margins, would-be migrants would rather move to the US than to China. That hasn't stopped the one losing relative influence to the other over recent decades. Ultimately, if a country grows from 5 per cent of world output to 18 per cent, as China has since 1980, there is a limit to what the soft power of others can do to counteract it. That kind of economic weight buys too much military hardware. It spawns too many bilateral dependants in trade and investment. It demands an answer in material power. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, April 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power Darkness is good. … Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, Satan. That's power. Steve Bannon © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power  The difficulty is not that corporate power is beyond the control of the American government. It is that corporate power controls the American government. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Give all power to the many, and they will oppress the few. Give all power to the few, they will oppress the many. Alexander Hamilton © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If majority rule is mostly a myth, then majority tyranny is mostly a myth too. For if the majority cannot rule, surely it cannot be tyrannical. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If the majority rarely rules on matters of specific policy, nevertheless the specific policies selected by a process of “minorities rule” probably lie most of the time within the bounds of consensus set by the important values of the politically active members of the society, of whom the voters are a key group. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.  Adage © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power [I]n the usual sense intended, majorities rarely, if ever, rule in any country or social organization at any time. Thus the fear of majority rule, as well as advocacy of it, is founded upon a misconception of the probabilities permitted by political reality. … To the extent that the electorate is numerous, extended, and diverse in interests, a majority faction is less likely to exist, and if it does exist, it is less likely to act as a unity. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power In today's unequal digital society, power accrues to those who already have too much of it,  fuelling popular discontent with the elites and giving rise to conspiracy theories about the omnipotence of Silicon Valley. Evgeny Morozov, Financial Times, September 1, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power The intelligence agencies in particular would likely find themselves exposed to retribution from a president enraged at them for reporting on Russia's aid to his election campaign. “As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people.” So New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joked to a roomful of Republican donors at the party's national convention in July. It would be a mighty power – and highly useful. David Frum, “How to Build an Autocracy,” The Atlantic, March 2017 issue © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power It is the essence of power that it accrues to those with the ability to determine the nature of the real. They authorize the language, the grammar, the vocabulary within which others must live their lives. Christopher Bigsby, Introduction to Penguin Classics edition of Arthur Miller's The Crucible © 2016 Kwiple.com
Power It was only after the major effort of the Second World War, when we found ourselves not presiding over a pacified and docile world, but engaged in a costly and indecisive struggle in Korea, that the American people first experienced the full reality of what all other great nations have known — the situation of limited power. Richard Hofstadter, “Goldwater and Pseudo-Conservative Politics” © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power [T]he making of governmental decisions is not a majestic march of great majorities united upon certain matters of basic policy. It is the steady appeasement of relatively small groups. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Many Americans tend to equate hegemony with imperialism, but the two are different. Imperialism is an active effort by one state to force others into its sphere, whereas  hegemony is more a condition than a purpose. A militarily, economically, and culturally powerful country exerts influence on other states by its mere presence, the way a larger body in space affects the behavior of smaller bodies through its gravitational force. Even if the United State was not aggressively  expanding its influence in Europe, and certainly  not through its military, the collapse of Soviet power enhanced the attractive pull of the United States and it democratic allies. Robert Kagan, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power The more power you have, the fewer consequences you face. Mary Trump, The Reckoning  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Mussolini observed that in seeking to accumulate power, it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken — feather by feather — so each squak is heard apart from every other and the whole process is kept as muted as possible. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warming   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Nobody gives you power. You have to take it from them. Nancy Pelosi © 2019 Kwiple.com
Power  Perhaps a great power’s cultural influence, like an ageing gigolo’s charm, is the last thing to go.  Long after Britain lost its might, there were people in Hong Kong and Zimbabwe moaning about their servants and describing things as “just not cricket” in a way no one in England had done since 1913. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, June 30, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power Power begets power. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, October 5, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Power is decaying. To put it simply, power no longer buys as much as it did in the past. In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use—and easier to lose. From boardrooms and combat zones to cyberspace, battles for power are as intense as ever, but they are yielding diminishing returns.  Moisés Naím, The End of Power   © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton © 2024 Kwiple.com
Power Real power is – I don't even want to use the word – fear. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power The recruiting of the functionaries from among the aristocracy was the fundamental vice of the Frankish Empire and the essential cause of its dissolution, which became so rapid after the death of Charlemagne. Surely, nothing is more fragile than that State the sovereign of which, all powerful in theory, is dependent in fact upon the fidelity of his independent agents. Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power That theme – that power begets power – should be on everyone's mind right now: the idea that when you lose power, you've not only lost that fight,  you've made it harder to win the next one. That's how power works. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, Sept. 25, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power There are men who could neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of their duty; but this stern virtue is the growth of few soils; and in the main it will be found that a power over a man's support is a power over his will. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 73 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it there is at the top, the less there is anywhere else. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power The US is going through the most awkward phase in the life cycle of an empire. Its relative power in the world is somewhat down from its all-time peak, but its burdens aren’t. It must prioritise, and at the same time daren't. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, October 17, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power The way to have power is to take it. William M. “Boss” Tweed © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power What we do is behind the scenes. Nobody knows we're there. Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, with a total of $835 billion worth of assets under management in 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power While a nation-state boasts e pluribus unum  (from plurality to unity), a veritable host of groups —feminists, multiculturalists, defenders of ethnicity, environmentalists—proclaim e uno plures  (from unity to plurality). Postmodern power is simultaneously concentrated and disaggregated. Sheldon Wolin, Power and Vision © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Power  With great power comes great publicity. Indeed, in many cases great publicity is a prerequisite for gaining great power. Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times, November 20, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com