Dictatorships usually exist primarily because of the internal power distribution in the home country. The population and society are too weak to cause the dictatorship serious problems, wealth and power are concentrated in too few hands. Although dictatorships may benefit from or be somewhat weakened by international actions, their continuation is dependent primarily on internal factors.
Gene SharpContrary to popular opinion, even totalitarian dictatorships are dependent on the population and the societies they rule.
Gene SharpThe degree of liberty or tyranny in any government is, it follows, in large degree a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free and their willingness and ability to resist efforts to enslave them.
Gene SharpBy placing confidence in violent means, one has chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressors nearly always have superiority.
Gene SharpAs soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that.
Gene Sharp