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Maybe I just have my dander up because I’m 3/4 of the way through Robert Caro’s The Power Broker*, and “a strain of graft that gets things done rather than just lining pockets” basically describes the entire second half of the book, but wondering “wouldn’t it be nice if we had a dictatorial mayor… but an awesome one” kind of flies in the face of thousands of years of history and understanding about human nature. (via )
Depending on what you want, of course; if you have different interests, it could work out just fine. Quoth Caro: “It was no accident that most of the world’s great roads–ancient and modern alike–had been associated with totalitarian regimes, that it took a great Khan to build the great roads of Asia . . . that during the four hundred years in which Rome was a republic it built relatively few major roads, its broad highways Whether or not it is true, as Moley claims, that ‘pure democracy has neither the imagination, nor the energy, nor the disciplined mentality to create major improvements,’ it is indisputably true that it is far easier for a totalitarian regime to take the probably unpopular decision to allocate a disproportionate share of its resources to such improvements . . . .”
