KAKISTOCRACY
RULE OF THE UNPRINCIPLED, UNETHICAL AND UNQUALIFIED
Keywords:
KAKISTOCRACY, Ethics, Democracy, Government, Scandals, MediaAbstract
The Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) saw it coming as early as the 1500’s when he declared: “what are we in power for!” This was not a question, but a pragmatic pronouncement about the skill of acquisition and utilization of power that leaders ought to learn, perpetuate and protect, by creating what Bolman and Deal acknowledge as ‘over-bounded systems.’1 Profoundly, Machiavelli’s evocation depicts the downfall of many great leaders across the globe – among governments, corporations and even causeoriented social movements. But more than 400 years later, the English Baron Lord Acton (1834-1902) unleashed his popular dictum against Machiavellian pragmatism: “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”
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