How Power Corrupts: cognition and democracy in organisations. (2010)

“Drawing on the history of political ideas and current research on the nature of power, Blaug shows that corruption affects both elites and subordinates, and that its symptoms are best treated by radical democracy.

Ricardo Blaug, Reader in Democracy and Political Theory University of Westminster, a qualified and experienced psychiatric social worker and an award-winning author and teacher. He has worked as a democratic theorist, an emergency clinician and a public sector manager in the UK, the US and the Netherlands

Palgrave MacMillan

“How Power Corrupts: Cognition and Democracy in Organisations” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) by Ricardo Blaug brings together cognitive psychology and democratic theory to examine the subtle ways in which power corrupts and distorts our thinking. Drawing on the history of political ideas and current research on the nature of power, it shows that corruption affects both elites and subordinates, and that its symptoms are best treated by radical democracy. The book presents a rigorous and critical analysis of the hierarchic organisational form. It is thus a provocative exploration of the usually hidden, and little understood, psychological politics of organisations.

Publisher’s link: How Power Corrupts