Political obscurantism

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This page is in need of updating. Actually, this definition should probably be called "political obscurantism".

About

Political obscurantism, i.e. obscurantism applied to politics, is a political philosophy which holds that rulers should withhold information from the ruled for the good of society. It directly opposes the democratic principle of rule by the governed.

Historical adherents of this philosophy have included:

  • Benito Mussolini – see Wikipedia: "[Mussolini] sympathized with Machiavelli's negative conception of most people as tending to be self-centred and unethical [...and] like Machiavelli, claimed that populations were unfit to govern themselves, and that they needed leadership to direct their lives."
  • Leo StraussStraussianism is a form of political obscurantism
  • Machiavelli