Dressing down is even regarded by some as a mark of American-style democracy. Actually, the roots of the custom are distinctly foreign. Israeli leaders were among the first to shed coat and tie. But even before the state of Israel existed, it was the practice of French revolutionaries, and later on of Communist commissars, to wear their radicalism on the sleeve. Lenin caps, Mao jackets, and Castro fatigues are of a piece with clothing worn long ago by the admirers of Marat, Danton, and Robespierre.
Many regimes profess to be on the side of the common man.
What distinguishes Napoleonic France, Soviet Russia, mainland China, and Communist Cuba is their hostility to organized religion. Academics have been known to parade their contempt for traditional values by sipping coffee in the classroom and putting their feet on the furniture. Giving glory to God One can go further. One of the very first things a militantly materialist government does, typically, in trying to undermine belief in God, is to prohibit priests and nuns from wearing clerical garb. One should dress at least as formally as one would dress for work and, if possible, more formally.