How Power Corrupts: Cognition and Democracy in OrganisationsMost agree with Lord Acton that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It seems to apply to history's cruel dictators, perhaps also to the behaviour of current political and economic elites and even across the hierarchic organisations of our everyday lives. Yet there has been little study of how power corrupts, and in particular, how it does so beneath the awareness of those afflicted. This book 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. --Book Jacket. |
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Contents
Corruption Power and Democracy | 8 |
Psychologies of Power | 30 |
Individual Cognition | 56 |
Copyright | |
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action analysis assert Augoustinos and Walker automated behaviour bias Cambridge University Press capacity citizens claim cognitive apparatus cognitive biases cognitive psychology cognitive science collective complex confirmation consciousness coordination corruption by power cracy critique cultural decision-making democracy democratic distortion dominant and subordinate effects empirical epistemological example Foucault Frankfurt School Freud functional groups Habermas hierarchic organisational form hierarchy human ideology indi individual cognition influence information processing institutions interaction invisible isation judgement Keltner leaders London Machiavelli manage Marx meaning mechanisms methodological individualism mind narcissistic object ontology organ organisational hierarchy organisational knowledge processing Oxford participation participatory perceptual political power corrupts problem reification relations of power representative democracy Richard Keys Rousseau Sage Sandelands and Stablein Schneider and Angelmar Schott selection Sidanius and Pratto simplification Social Cognition social construction Social Dominance Orientation Social Dominance theory Social Identity Social Psychology social structure social world tendency thinking understanding vidual Wolin York