“Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'état, still use tanks.”

—  Umberto Eco

Il costume di casa (1973); as translated in Travels in Hyperreality (1986)
Context: Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of industrialization the whole scene changes. The day after the fall of Khrushchev, the editors of Pravda, Izvestiia, the heads of the radio and television were replaced; the army wasn't called out. Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. To…" by Umberto Eco?
Umberto Eco photo
Umberto Eco 120
Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic… 1932–2016

Related quotes

Viktor Yanukovych photo

“What is happening in our country is a slow-motion coup d'état.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Speaking of the Orange Revolution
Source: [2004-12-06, Янукович назначил нового руководителя своего штаба и ушел в отпуск, https://www.newsru.com/world/06dec2004/yanuk.html, NewsRU]

“A powerful judicial system is our protection Gone are the days when easy to carry out a coup d’état. Only a powerful judicial system is our protection from all abuses and mishandling of any issue, including the politics or economics of the country.”

Akhtar Aly Kureshy (1963) Pakistani advocate, legal advisor

Source: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/11/07/seeking-judicial-activism/

Manuel Fraga Iribarne photo

“It is obious that the glorious day of July, 18, 1936 [Franco's coup d'état] was one of the nicest political and social movements that the world remembers. Historians shall admit that the most and best part of the country was the one who raised against the governement, illegal and corrupt, who was preparing the darkest red revolution from the power.”

Manuel Fraga Iribarne (1922–2012) Spanish politician

1949, reported in Hernández, María Jesús. El verbo de don Manuel http://www.elmundo.es/especiales/espana/manuel-fraga/perlas/02.html Elmundo.es.
Franco and Francoism

Joseph Conrad photo

“The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make themselves the accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of their houses to starve in ditches. And they have the political power still, if they only had the sense to use it for their preservation.”

Joseph Conrad book The Secret Agent

Source: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 2

Will Eisner photo

“Researcher: In almost every country there are people trying to seize political power! What is the easy way?”

Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist

The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005)

Hovhannes Bagramyan photo

“We have won on the Arlov, Kursk, Belgorod, and Kharkov grounds. We won because the country was being defended not only by the army but by the entire Soviet people. The Socialist economy, Soviet political structure, and Marxist-Leninist ideology proved their unarguable excellence against the Fascist economy, Fascist political structure, and Fascist ideology of Germany.”

Hovhannes Bagramyan (1897–1982) Soviet military commander

Quoted in "I. C. Bagramyan: A Photo Album About A Soviet Marshal" - Yerevan - 1987

“Whereas in democratic countries the businessman may use his money to influence legislation and public opinion and thus operated as a source of power and corruption, in fascist countries he can exist only as the subject upon whom State power operates. The corruption in fascist arises inevitably from the reversal of the role of the capitalist and the State as wielders of economic power.”

Günter Reimann (1904–2005) German economist

Source: The Vampire Economy: Doing Business Under Fascism, 2014, p. 24

Donald J. Trump photo

“People say, "Do you have the same opportunity today as you had years ago?" And I said, "Absolutely." You always have an opportunity. There's always an opportunity, especially in this country.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Source: Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/21/le.00.html, CNN (21 March 2004)

Alija Izetbegović photo

“There is no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions. The failure of these institutions to function and the instability of these regimes in Muslim countries, manifest in frequent changes and coups d'état, is most often the consequence of their a priori opposition to Islam, as the fundamental and foremost feeling of the people in those countries. Claiming its right to order its own world alone, Islam clearly rules out the right and the possibility of the application of any foreign ideology in its own region. there is, therefore, no lay principle, and the state ought to be a reflection of and to support the moral concepts of the religion.”

Alija Izetbegović (1925–2003) Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Source: The Islamic Declaration (1970), p. 30, as quoted in The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia: Nationalism and War in the Balkans, Aleksandar Pavković, Springer Science+Business Media https://books.google.com/books?id=u3paCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUhfPIl43WAhVHro8KHReTDhEQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q&f=false,

Bob Dole photo

“As long as there are only 3 to 4 people on the floor, the country is in good hands. It's only when you have 50 to 60 in the Senate that you want to be concerned.”

Bob Dole (1923) American politician

Reported in Tom Crisp, The Book of Bob: Choice Words, Memorable Men (2007), p. 134.

Related topics