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About this quote

What does it mean?
Trotsky warns that internal party methods can replace the party with a single dictator.
In plain terms
Centralized methods can turn a party into one man's rule.
What can you take from it?
Centralization risks turning into dictatorship.

Where it applies

  • party politics
  • governance
  • organizational behavior

Putting it to work

  • political analysis
  • organizational reform
  • critique

Questions to consider

  • How does power concentrate?
  • Who checks the leaders?

Another view

It describes a risk that may not happen in every organization.

More from Leon Trotsky

  1. Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.

    Permalink to quote #23
  2. Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.

    Permalink to quote #25
  3. It was the supreme expression of the mediocrity of the apparatus that Stalin himself rose to his position.

    Permalink to quote #22

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