Don't you worry about the foreign minister. The foreign minister will do anything I tell him. If I say: 'take down your trousers and sit with your bare bottom on a block of ice', Gromyko will do so until further notice.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Authoritarian regimes concentrate power at the top, overriding institutional roles.
- In plain terms
- Leaders can make ministers do anything they want.
- What can you take from it?
- Personal power often trumps formal office.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who really makes the decisions?
Another view
Institutions sometimes limit individual leaders effectively.
More from Nikita Khrushchev
My arms are up to the elbows in blood. That is the most terrible thing that lies in my soul.
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Permalink to quote #8 Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all.
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