"Otto von Bismarck was no social reformer in the Frances Perkins mold. His motives were defensive. He feared that the public would turn to the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels unless the German government intervened. Bismarck hoped his welfare provisions would be just generous enough to keep the public quiescent. That is a time-honored political tactic: when the Roman emperor Trajan distributed free grain, the poet Juvenal famously grumbled that citizens could be bought off by “bread and circuses.” You could tell much the same story about Italy’s welfare state, which took shape in the 1930s as the fascist Mussolini tried to undercut the popular appeal of his socialist opponents."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Military leaders from GermanyPrussiansChancellors of GermanyGerman foreign ministersMinisters of Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern World (2017)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Der König herrscht aber regiert nicht."
"Die Politik ist keine exakte Wissenschaft."
"I ask you what right had I to close the way to the throne against these people? The kings of Prussia have never been …"
"I shall soon be compelled to undertake the conduct of the Prussian Government. My first care will be to reorganise th…"
"I grant that I am full of prejudices; I sucked them in with my mother's milk, and I cannot possibly argue them away."
"Nicht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die großen Fragen der Zeit entschieden — daß ist der große Fehler v…"
"Faust complains of having two souls in his breast. I have a whole squabbling crowd. It goes on as in a republic."
"The social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state."
"I am of opinion that the idea of the Christian State is as old as the ci-devant Holy Roman Empire, as old as all the …"
"Only a country's most vital interests justify its embarking on war. ... Aye, I made the war of 1866, fulfilling my ha…"