The Paradox of Power: Why Incompetent Leaders Win

We live in an era where incompetent people regularly occupy top positions in politics, business, and other spheres, while truly capable specialists remain in the shadows. This is not an accident, but a pattern with deep psychological and social roots. Moreover, modern research shows that the pursuit of power can take pathological forms, similar to drug addiction.

Power as a Drug: The Phenomenon of Kratomania

Russian researchers in the field of addictology have introduced the concept of “kratomania” — an addiction to power, which by its mechanisms is strikingly similar to drug addiction. The concept was developed by Dr. A.M. Karpov in the study “Kratomania: An Ancient and Unrecognized Addiction”. This discovery explains many paradoxes of modern leadership.

Biochemical Foundations of Power

Power indeed causes physiological changes similar to the effects of drugs. The feeling of control over other people stimulates the production of dopamine — the neurotransmitter of pleasure. Studies of the neurochemical foundations of power have shown that “power activates the same reward circuits in the brain and creates an addictive ‘high’ similar to drug addiction”. Just like with psychoactive substances, this creates a need for a constant increase in the “dose” of power to achieve the same effect.

People who have gained power experience a “reboot” of their personality. A conviction forms that this format of life is the only correct one. Power is desired always and in increasing quantities — a classic sign of developing tolerance, characteristic of any addiction.

Distortion of Reality Perception

Just as drugs distort the perception of light, sound, and time, power deforms the perception of social reality. People in power stop adequately assessing the lives of ordinary citizens. Their needs, sufferings, and dreams become irrelevant. The significance of their own well-being overshadows service to society.

Double standards appear, concepts of good and evil change. Reality becomes irrelevant — there is an escape from unpleasant reality into the pleasant unreality of power, where all problems seem solvable by forceful methods.

Intelligence as an Obstacle to Power

One of the main paradoxes of modernity is that high intelligence can become an obstacle on the path to leadership. Research shows: intelligence contributes to effective leadership only up to a certain level — approximately IQ 120. After this mark, additional intellectual abilities may even hinder.

Intelligent people are prone to doubts and see many nuances where the crowd expects simple answers. They strive for ethical standards and painfully reflect on their decisions. All this makes them less attractive to the masses, who prefer confident leaders, even if that confidence is based on ignorance.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Action

The classic psychological phenomenon explains a lot: incompetent people systematically overestimate their abilities, while true experts tend to doubt themselves. In the original study “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments” Kruger and Dunning demonstrated that participants in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their performance and abilities. As a result, in public, confidence is perceived as a sign of competence, although the connection between them is often inverse.

Research confirms: narcissism is a strong predictor of leadership in unstructured groups. People intuitively follow those who demonstrate maximum self-confidence, even if it is unfounded.

Personality Prerequisites for Power Addiction

Studies by A.M. Karpov show that predisposition to kratomania has clear personality markers:

• Egoism and Hedonism — the goal of life is reduced to obtaining pleasures

• Inflated Self-Esteem and confidence in one’s own exceptionalism

• Suggestibility and tendency to imitate other successful manipulators

• Double Standards in relation to social and moral norms

• Social and Spiritual Immaturity, moral instability

• Superficiality of Judgments, uncriticality, irresponsibility

• Deceitfulness, Cunning, Evasiveness

Moral, educated, self-critical, and responsible people do not become addicted to power — just as they are less likely to become drug addicts.

Psychology of Supporting Incompetence

Need for Certainty

The human brain evolved for survival in a simple world of small groups but proved unadapted to the complexity of modern systems. People instinctively prefer simple explanations for complex problems. Scientific honesty with its caveats and conditions competes poorly with the psychological comfort of simple stories.

In periods of crises, this tendency intensifies. The people follow those who promise easy solutions, even if those solutions are unrealistic or harmful.

Threat of Competence

Weak leaders intuitively understand: they are threatened not by external enemies, but by their own subordinates who surpass them in abilities. Therefore, they surround themselves with even weaker performers, creating a “chain reaction of incompetence.” From the center of power outward spreads a “drought of competence.”

Principle of Homophily

People strive to surround themselves with similar ones — in views, abilities, social status. This creates “islands of incompetence,” closed to alternative opinions and fresh ideas.

Development of Power Addiction: Stages of Degradation

Egocentrism and High Self-Esteem

For people addicted to power, the development of extreme egocentrism is characteristic. Personal interests become more important than public ones. Huge sums of money are spent on retaining power. Social and financial status becomes more important than moral and cultural.

Those addicted to power do not respect subordinates, strive not to notice them or exploit them. They do not tolerate criticism of themselves, just like drug addicts. They have only rights and claims against others — no obligations.

Moral Degradation

With the development of power addiction, there is a simplification and coarsening of the personality, loss of higher — spiritual, cultural, social needs. Addicts “free themselves” from concepts of conscience, honesty, responsibility, duty, gratitude.

They become deceitful, cynical, treacherous, emotionally cold, ruthless. This affects all spheres of life, including family relationships.

Anosognosia — Denial of the Problem

A specific sign of kratomania is anosognosia — lack of criticism of one’s condition, non-recognition of problems. Those addicted to power are convinced of their exceptionalism, competence, rightness, legitimacy, infallibility.

This lack of self-criticism makes voluntary treatment or behavior change impossible.

Tactics for Retaining Power

Incompetent leaders, once at the helm, use time-tested strategies:

Exploitation of Tribalism. Creating clear boundaries of “us-them” allows turning any criticism into “attacks by enemies.” The leader’s identity merges with the group identity, and criticism of the first is perceived as an attack on the second.

Cognitive Overload. A constant stream of scandals, crises, and loud statements creates information overload. People have no time or energy left for deep analysis — they react emotionally and impulsively.

Manipulation of Truth. Constant change of positions, rewriting history, and creating an environment of blurred truths disorients the public. In a world where “alternative facts” become the norm, competence loses value.

Exploitation of Instability. People’s material insecurity is used to offer simple answers to systemic problems. Instead of honest analysis, scapegoats are offered.

Cyclical Restructuring of Life

Just as drug addicts live “from dose to dose,” those addicted to power structure their lives in cycles — from elections to elections, from appointment to appointment. But unlike drug addicts, whose cycles are measured in hours, kratoman cycles last years, making their addiction more comfortable and less noticeable.

Priority of momentary personal interests over strategic public ones — a characteristic feature of both drug addicts and power addicts. Both become irresponsible liars and temporizers.

Power Withdrawal Syndrome

When people addicted to power are deprived of this source of pleasure, they develop a withdrawal syndrome with mental, neurological, somatic, and behavioral disorders — exactly the same as in drug addicts when deprived of the drug.

This explains why many politicians cling to power until the last, resort to any tricks to preserve it, and why resignation becomes a real tragedy for them.

Codependency of the Environment

Just as with drug addiction, a circle of codependent people forms around those addicted to power. The behavior of loved ones is completely absorbed by the problems of the power addict. They do not receive full emotional relationships, contenting themselves with material benefits as a surrogate compensation.

Codependents in kratomania may unconsciously provoke escalation of authoritarian behavior, manipulate the addict, pushing him to new “breakdowns” — abuses of power.

Technological Aggravation of the Problem

Modern technologies have significantly exacerbated the situation. Social media algorithms encourage emotional, not rational content. Information bubbles are created that reinforce bias. The digital environment rewards quick reactions instead of thoughtful analysis.

The emergence of deepfakes and other manipulation technologies opens new possibilities for distorting reality. In these conditions, distinguishing competence from its imitation becomes even more difficult.

Systemic Conditions for Incompetence

Certain structural factors create a favorable environment for the flourishing of incompetent leaders:

• Lack of Feedback, when the consequences of decisions are not visible or blurred

• Centralization of Power with weak control and absence of checks and balances

• Information Asymmetry, making it difficult to assess true competence

• Wrong Incentives, encouraging short-term results at the expense of long-term stability

Neuroscientific Studies of Power Corruption

Modern neuroscientific studies using fMRI reveal the mechanisms of corrupt decision-making by those in power. In the study “Neural basis of corruption in power-holders” scientists found that power-holders consider two types of moral costs when accepting bribes: costs of collusion with a fraudulent briber, encoded in the anterior insula, and harm caused to a third party, represented in the right temporoparietal junction. These moral costs are integrated into a value signal in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Stanford Prison Experiment: Power Corrupts

The famous “Stanford Prison Experiment” demonstrated how quickly ordinary people can become cruel when given power. In the 1971 experiment, students randomly assigned as “guards” began to behave sadistically, inflicting humiliations and sufferings on “prisoners.” The experiment showed the power of situations in changing human behavior — even good, normal people can commit evil acts when situational forces push them in that direction.

How to Recognize an Incompetent Leader with Kratomania

There are characteristic signs that allow identifying incompetence behind the facade of confidence:

• Avoidance of specifics and vague answers to direct questions

• Constant shifting of responsibility to external factors

• Intolerance of constructive criticism and suppression of dissent

• Surrounding oneself with flatterers instead of experts

• Loud promises without a detailed implementation plan

• Growth of “Tolerance” — constant need for expansion of powers

• Distortion of Reality — ignoring facts that contradict the desired

• Egocentrism — all decisions are made based on personal gain

• Double Standards — different rules for oneself and subordinates

Age Factor

As with drugs, the younger the age at which a person becomes acquainted with power, the faster the addiction develops and the more malignant its course. This explains why family political dynasties often demonstrate particularly vivid examples of degradation.

Difference Between Personalized and Socialized Power

The study by Wang and Sun “Absolute power leads to absolute corruption? Impact of power on corruption depending on the concepts of power one holds” showed that the connection between power and corruption depends on the concept of power held by the person. Personalized power (using power to achieve egocentric goals) increases selfish behavior and tolerance for corruption, while socialized power (using power to achieve goals directed at others) reduces both.

Medical Approach to the Problem of Power

Perhaps the time has come to consider kratomania as a real mental disorder requiring professional intervention. Just as we restrict the rights of drug addicts to drive vehicles for safety reasons, so we should raise the question of admitting people with signs of power addiction to managerial activities.

Mental, personality, and behavioral disorders in those addicted to power create risks on a much larger scale than drug addicts behind the wheel. Managing ministries, regions, large enterprises in a state of kratomania can lead to catastrophes on a national and even global scale.

Historical Examples: When Power Becomes Pathology

History is full of examples where incompetent but charismatic or power-hungry leaders rose to the heights of management, often with catastrophic consequences. These examples confirm: kratomania is not an anomaly, but a stable historical mechanism.

1. Caligula (12–41 AD) — Emperor as the Embodiment of Power Madness

Roman Emperor Caligula began with popularity and generosity, but quickly transitioned to terror, self-aggrandizement, and outright madness. He declared himself a god, appointed his horse a senator, and arranged mass executions on the slightest suspicion. A typical example of how power destroys personality and leads to moral and cognitive degradation.

2. Adolf Hitler — Narcissism, Mass Kratomania, and Cult of Strength

Hitler did not possess high intelligence, but his charisma and absolute self-confidence made him the leader of an entire nation. His rule is a catastrophe grown from psychopathic traits, power addiction, thirst for control, and inability to accept criticism. He surrounded himself with loyal but often incompetent performers, making the system completely dependent on his personal will.

3. Mao Zedong — Power for Power’s Sake

Mao promoted radical ideas, ignoring experts’ warnings, which led to millions of victims from famine during the “Great Leap Forward.” Any doubts about his decisions were suppressed. The cult of personality, intolerance of opponents, and denial of reality became classic symptoms of political kratomania.

4. Saparmurat Niyazov — Kratomania as National Doctrine

Turkmen leader Niyazov established an absurd level of power personalization: he renamed months after himself and his mother, banned ballet and gold teeth, wrote a book mandatory for study — Ruhnama, equated to sacred scripture. This is a vivid example of how power without institutional constraints turns into a tool for satisfying narcissistic needs.

5. Enron and the Collapse of Corporate Ethics

At the corporate level, an example of kratomania was the executives of the Enron company. The pursuit of personal gain, ignoring experts, and manipulating reports led to the largest corporate bankruptcy and undermined trust in markets. Power within the company was perceived as a right to impunity.

These and hundreds of other examples show that power without checks and feedback systematically leads to distortion of reality, destruction of institutions, and suffering of millions. Competence, morality, and rationality retreat under the pressure of pathological attraction to control.

Global Consequences of Kratomania

The modern world has reached a critical point where the kratomania of elites creates a threat to the entire civilization. 1% of the planet’s population possesses most of the wealth. The greed of the “powers that be” is the main cause of financial crises, political instability, aggression, wars, man-made disasters.

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Conclusion

Incompetent leaders win not in spite of the system — they are its product. When power becomes an end in itself, rather than a tool of service, it loses its legitimacy and turns into a source of addiction, distorted thinking, and systemic degradation.

Kratomania is not a metaphor, but a real pathological process, confirmed by psychology, neuroscience, and historical experience. The sooner this is recognized at the level of public consciousness and political institutions, the more chances there are to avoid new cycles of authoritarianism, crises, and catastrophes.

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Sources:

1. “Kratomania: An Ancient and Unrecognized Addiction”
2. “power activates the same reward circuits in the brain and creates an addictive ‘high’ similar to drug addiction”
3. “Neural basis of corruption in power-holders”
4. “Stanford Prison Experiment”
5. “Absolute power leads to absolute corruption? Impact of power on corruption depending on the concepts of power one holds”