Might makes right

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"Might makes right" or "Might is right" is an aphorism on the origin of morality, with both descriptive and prescriptive senses.

Descriptively, it asserts that a society's view of right and wrong is determined by those in power, with a meaning similar to "History is written by the victors". That is, although all people have their personal ideas of the good, only those strong enough to overcome obstacles and enemies can put their ideas into effect, and spread their own standards to society at large. Montague defined kratocracy or kraterocracy (from the Ancient Greek: κράτος, romanized: krátos, lit. 'might; strength') as a government based on coercive power, by those strong enough to seize control through physical violence or demagogic manipulation.^[1]

"Might makes right" has been described as the credo of totalitarian regimes.^[2] The sociologist Max Weber analyzed the relations between a state's power and its moral authority in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Realist scholars of international politics use the phrase to describe the "state of nature" in which power determines the relations among sovereign states.^[3]

Prescriptively (or normatively), the phrase is most often used pejoratively, to protest perceived tyranny.^{[citation needed]}

The phrase sometimes has a positive connotation in the context of master morality or social Darwinism, which hold that a society's strongest members should rule and determine its standards of right and wrong, as well as its goals for the greater good.^{[citation needed]}