Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
McCarthy claims only inefficiency protects liberty from bureaucracy.
In plain terms
An efficient bureaucracy is dangerous to freedom.
What can you take from it?
Liberty needs friction against unchecked administrative power.

Where it applies

  • policy critique
  • civil liberties debate

Putting it to work

  • limiting bureaucratic scope
  • demanding oversight

Questions to consider

  • Does efficiency hurt freedom?
  • How do you check government power?

Another view

Efficiency can also serve the public interest well.

More from Eugene McCarthy

  1. The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-pa…

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. There is only one thing to do - take it to the country!

    Permalink to quote #4
  3. Have you ever tried to split sawdust?

    Permalink to quote #1

Related quotes

  1. 'If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.'

    Henry Steele CommagerHenry Steele Commager quote #3
  2. Here am I who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet I have no enemies - except, indeed…

    David HumeDavid Hume quote #4
  3. 'I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefit…

    Johnny DeppJohnny Depp quote #4