O fim de um governo

The Death of a State, por James Ostrowski, no blog do LewRockwell.com:

What is going on in Egypt is so rich in import that it’s not easy to grapple with it. (...)


I see the essence of the story in this. An authoritarian state with rigged elections and with an extensive and brutal secret police and with control over the internet, can be brought down by direct citizen action. I said “can” since we do not know yet how this will play out. But other authoritarian states have been brought down in similar circumstances (Iran, Philippines, Romania).


In my LRC bestseller, Direct Citizen Action, drawing on the work of de La Boétie and Rothbard, I wrote: “most of the power of the government comes from the perception that it is legitimate. . . History shows that regimes fall when the masses withdraw their “consent.” This can be done by direct action, basically, a national strike until the dictator flees with whatever loot he can carry onto his private plane. Violence is not necessary though usually the state will shoot some protesters and the protesters will throw rocks in response. But as we saw with the Shah, state violence can merely accelerate the death of the regime by arousing even more opposition.