Robert Conquest was an historian who is sometimes quoted for his "Three Laws of Politics":
- Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
- Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
- The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
While these laws have been attributed to him (e.g. by John Derbyshire, a columnist for the National Review in 2003), it isn't clear that he ever stated them.
A Google search revealed either people copying and pasting from John Derbyshire or just writing up their own spin on the issue.
Did Robert Conquest ever write down his "Laws"?