Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author states that state violence correlates with the power held by domestic elites.
In plain terms
States are violent when powerful domestic groups influence them.
What can you take from it?
State violence often serves domestic power interests.

Where it applies

  • political analysis
  • societal critique

Putting it to work

  • analyze power structures
  • study state violence

Questions to consider

  • What drives state violence?
  • How does domestic power affect foreign policy?

Another view

The claim is broad and may not account for all state behaviors.

More from Noam Chomsky

  1. My feeling then, and now, is that IF there is to be an army, then the burden of service should be shared, not assigned to the disadvantaged by one or another m…

    Permalink to quote #128
  2. States are violent institutions. The government of any country, including ours, represents some sort of domestic power structure, and it's usually violent. Sta…

    Permalink to quote #130
  3. I was very much involved in the resistance movement in the 1960's. In fact, I was just barely -- the only reason I missed a long jail sentence is because the T…

    Permalink to quote #127

Related quotes

  1. It was evident to Elias Tate that this was the government. First they shake hands with you, he thought, and then they murder you.

    Philip Kindred DickPhilip Kindred Dick quote #64
  2. Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should rem…

    Robert MugabeRobert Mugabe quote #3
  3. You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.

    Boris YeltsinBoris Yeltsin quote #6