Politics is the control of people, so all political decisions must focus on controlling people without angering them into destroying the political force. This is made easier by the fact that the people want to be controlled, and want each other to be controlled, in order to preserve their own security, or to save themselves the effort of controlling themselves. So a government that provides guidance and security will be followed and appreciated, while one that removes guidance and security will be destroyed by its people.

All governments must seem to work for the people, or the people will turn on them.

Government out of fear works only as long as the people are prevented from uniting. If the offenses of the rulers are grave enough, or if a leader comes to the people, the government collapses. Government out of love (usually government out of bribery: Government does what it wants and as long as the populace is fat and happy, nobody pays attention) is ruled by the same principle, but often has greater internal integrity, because the focus is taken away from the offenses the government commits (for all governments make mistakes and commit offenses), so that the people are distracted and unless a good leader appears and ignites some fervor over various background sins. Thus uncontrolled leaders are the downfall of all governments, because a good leader can make anything look like a problem or a virtue at will, so the government can only defend itself with other good leaders. Therefore it ought to be a primary goal of any governing body to actively seek out good leaders from the populace, and employ them for its own uses.

Government will either adapt to the present or fail. All things are transient, government forms must be as well.

Government inevitably seeks to place more and more power in the hands of fewer and fewer people, until at last a dictatorship emerges.

It is not legislature that makes good government, but the wisdom of the ruler in the moment.

Government should not pretend it is not above its own laws, because governments control armies, and armies serve only the purpose of killing, which most governments find distasteful from the population general. Better to drop the pretenses and convince the people that the government is wise enough to create exceptions to the rules, which is why they are the government in the first place.

Government is never representative, the ordinary man is stupid enough that a truly representative government would crumble under the weight of its own foolishness. Only oligarchy and dictatorship exist. Oligarchy of the wealthy intelligentsia and dictatorship of the charismatic. True democracy has never been seen anywhere for good reason.

The two forms, oligarchy and dictator ship both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Dictatorship is swift and sure in action, but relies on the wisdom of one man, and there are few who are right enough often enough to make it effective. Oligarchy pools the wisdom of several, helping prevent foolish snap choices and whims in government, but is restrained in terms of scheduling, tends towards endless bickering, and is often inefficient as each member seeks his own individual benefit. The resultant delays in action are often as harmful to a nation as the foolish choices of a dictator. Rome was wise to have dictators on hand for emergencies while the oligarchic senate governed in peacetime.

The vote is a clever tool to fool the masses into blaming the errors of government on themselves, when in truth, the only people permitted to run are members of the same upper class oligarchy that would hold the power anyway. All that is accomplished is the focusing of that power into the hands of the best few aristocrats, instead of all of them.

Political parties and groups perpetuate bad government, by giving the masses a unit to blame for problems, and an alternative that is no better, though possibly bad in different ways. The people will choose one side, then when it fails move to the other, and back and forth, always blaming the opposite side for all problems, never altering the government sufficiently to correct those problems. In a party system, drastic measures cannot be taken, no matter how great the need.

Governments are like boats on a great, endless sea of time and chaos: they can stay afloat for a while, sometimes a long while, but in the end, the always sink.

The measure of a government should not be what it did or how, but how long it survived as an organizing force.

Nations and governments are separate entities, it is possible for a government to fall without destroying a nation. That is called revolution, and is to be avoided at all costs by those in power, and sought at all costs by those who want to be.

The only power worth controlling is life and death. If you cannot control the power to take life then you will always be at the mercy of those who do. Thus the military is a necessary aspect of any government, and the training of that military ought to be the best possible, governed always from the trials of the moment, so that you are versatile in the extreme, for the most potent military can control lesser militaries.

Killing enemies en masse is pointless, destroy only what you must. Nothing is gained through death, though much may be gained through the threat of it.

Control is essentially theoretically. It cannot truly be exerted over anyone, if nobody listens, you have no power, and they are always free not to listen. So to maintain control, it is necessary to maintain the popular belief that you are in control of the destinies of your populous. This is done by positive reinforcement (money) to the people who have the resources to let you use negative reinforcement (guns) to the people whose happiness is not essentially valuable. A common example is that of the police, for government money they arrest and kill people that do not follow the rules, which makes everyone more eager to follow the rules. They also enforce tax laws when necessary, which gives the government the money to continue paying them, after taking the majority. The mob accomplishes essentially the same thing, except that they skip the middle man, the government, and exert their influence directly.