misrule

Misrule is a term used to describe governance characterized by incompetence, corruption, oppression, or arbitrary decision-making. It denotes a state in which those who hold political power fail to meet basic standards of legitimacy, accountability, or public welfare.

The word combines mis- (wrong or badly) with rule, and it arises in political discourse as a descriptive rather than a formal doctrine. In historical and scholarly writing, misrule is often contrasted with the rule of law, sound administration, and accountable government.

In classical political thought, critics warned that rule by the many could degenerate into misrule without stable institutions to check power. Later debates on democracy and republics also used the term to describe government that abuses popular sovereignty, ignores minority rights, or acts through faction rather than reasoned policy.

In modern usage, misrule appears in critiques of governments across the spectrum—authoritarian regimes, transitional administrations, and democracies alike—where corruption, cronyism, incompetence, or suppression of dissent undermines public governance and the rule of law. Real-world manifestations include misallocation of resources, opaque decision processes, and policies that favor a narrow group over the general population.

Because misrule is inherently evaluative, its application depends on context, standards, and perspective. It serves as a heuristic label rather than a technical category, used by historians, journalists, and political scientists to describe perceived governance failures.