Abhijit Banerjee Quotes

What you and I understand as a government doesn't exist in many African countries. In fact, what we call our governments are vampire states. Vampires because they suck the economic vitality out of their people. Government is the problem in Africa.

If bad and inexperienced politicians control power in Nigeria, my wealth may turn into poverty, and I am not ready to become a poor man.

We are asking Nigerians for their cooperation. They shouldn't expect miracles to happen a couple of months after we've taken over because the destruction took so many years - 16 years of the ruling party's rule of this country.

I would not vote for the mayor. It's not just because he didn't invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.

I am inheriting a country which has been badly ravaged by years of misrule and ineptitude. There has been a wide disconnect between the people and the government.

People of the country are totally disappointed with the administration of Narendra Modi.

Democracy has generally failed in Africa because to much power, too often, was concentrated in the hands of too few.

Influence, power and money have invaded our political process …. If we leave it to the politicians, it is unlikely that anything will be done.

We are in a bad way. That herd of wild asses' colts [see Job 11:12], braying and kicking up their heels, is an unsatisfactory result of a hundred years of Democracy.

The problem comes from the lack of transparency and accountability of government.

We live at a time when people do not have much trust in government.

This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.

Congress actively undermines the best of legislative practice.

For the last 25 years we have lived with a playful, unreasoning absolutism that found fulfillment in empty appearances and a vain craving for status which the nation indulged for too long…. Absolutist government was responsible for our failure to produce statesmen, and instead only bureaucrats and lackeys.

The nation's chronic weakness is its political system, which is nearing dysfunction. If the U.S. can elect better political leadership, it should be able to manage problems better than most competitors.

Our country is slowly but surely moving - and I've seen it over and over again in many instances in government - toward a culture of mediocrity.

Indecision and reveries are the anesthetics of constructive action.

We Americans are as great as we have ever been. But our government is broken.

I have to say to the Government that you are not even getting nowhere fast - you are getting nowhere slowly.

I'm sick and tired of politics and politicians as usual.

Trump assumed office promising to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, D.C. Instead, the swamp has grown wider and deeper.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Since the inauguration of Mr. Lee Myung-bak, I was very much disappointed with his politics and policies. Not only in economics, but also in many social and political issues, he made many mistakes.

The game of political music chairs and finger-pointing by career politicians and agency bureaucrats needs to end.

We will remember UPA 2, if at all, it seems, as that period when things went mysteriously wrong - for the bribe-taking, buck-passing, foot-dragging, and general sense of paralysis.