But, in practice, it is hard to feel that my decision-making powers have been weakened because when I got my driver's license enrolling in organ donation was the default option.
Above all, Hungary's vote shows that the extremist, outright racist right is not weakened, but in fact emboldened by such an approach.
The ruling National Front coalition has been weakened by dissent against Abdullah, who has seen his authority erode rapidly since the March vote.
But the narrow nature of Mr Trimble's victory today has undoubtedly left him weakened and will give him little room for manoeuvre in any future discussions with Sinn Fein.
As the British empire was gradually dissolved after the second world war and its industrial base attacked by younger, nimbler economies, the cohesion of the British state weakened.
United States The pound may have weakened against the dollar, but living costs in a US resort this winter remain lower than in a eurozone one.
The dispute's bitter outcome left the National Union of Mineworkers and the the wider trade union movement weakened and divided.
"All of these [secular opposition] parties were tremendously weakened by 30 years of Mubarak's regime and 60 years of single-party rule," said Dawoud, who was stabbed by Morsi supporters for calling for his overthrow, and condemned by other secular politicians for denouncing the later crackdown on Islamists.
Today, almost all of those markers of identity are gone or weakened.
He listed the potentially harmful side effects from sharp movements in currencies, commodities and interest rates that could push already weakened countries to the brink of collapse.
Senator Marco Rubio (Florida): Rubio was a relatively minor player in the shutdown theater, but he stands to benefit enormously from it as far as Tea Party support goes, as it has weakened the chances that the immigration debate will return to front-and-center.
