Political order and Political decay

De Samuel Huntington

Chapter 1
Political Gap
– The most important political distinction among countries concerns not their
forms of government but their degree of government.
– Each country is a political community with an overwhelming consensus among
the people on the legitimacy of the political system.
– “If men are to remain civilized or become so, the art of associating together
must grow and improve in the same ratio in which the equality of conditions is
increased”.
– Economic development and political stability are two independent goals and
progress toward one has no necessary connection with progress toward the
other.
– The primary problem is not liberty but the creation of a legitimate public order.
Men may have order without liberty but they cannot have liberty without order.