bank secrets

[--Pete]

Hi,

I don't think this is actually true. Someone (remember hearing, no source) actually studied the famous example, and Mussolini's effect on train lateness was exactly zero. The Soviets were famous for things being grossly off schedule, I presume the trains as much as anything else.

The best government in the world for running trains is probably the Japanese; I don't quite know how to classify that, but I don't think 'totalitarian' is the way to go.

-Jester

Technically, you are probably right. Since I used the expression 'made the trains run on time' as a metaphor for 'government or bureaucratic efficiency or competence (more or less)', the truth of the concept is moot. It remains a fact that a dictatorship is a very efficient form of government in many senses of efficiency. That is why even very democratic/republican countries tend to centralized power under their leader in times of national crises. And often abandon those leaders afterward. Churchill comes to mind. FDR, possibly had he not died. And that's just recently, but examples go back as far as recorded history. The Romans even made it a part of their government, to be used in emergencies, and gave us the word for 'dictator' from 'one who speaks'.

--Pete