Politics & Power Quote by C. Northcote Parkinson

Politics runs less on merit than on moral bookkeeping. Parkinson’s line is a neat little exposure of how power pretends to be ethical: you don’t get what you ask for; you get what others decide you’ve earned. That shift from “want” to “deserve” is the whole trick. Wants are negotiable, messy, and personal. Deserving is a public verdict, a way for gatekeepers to dress self-interest as principled judgment.

The subtext is almost bureaucratic in its chill. Political actors rarely say, “We’re blocking you because it helps us.” They say, implicitly or explicitly, “You haven’t proven you merit it,” or “It would be irresponsible to reward that demand.” Denial becomes a kind of pedagogy: a lesson in obedience. Concession becomes a kind of discipline: a reward for good behavior. Parkinson is pointing at the patronizing asymmetry baked into institutions where someone else controls the levers and also claims the right to grade your character.

As a historian (and the mind behind “Parkinson’s Law”), he’s alert to systems, not saints. This reads like an observation pulled from committee rooms and cabinet reshuffles: policy and favors distributed not according to stated needs, but according to reputations, hierarchies, and the story power tells itself. The line also captures a democratic irony: even in “representation,” the represented are treated like petitioners. What you want is often precisely what triggers resistance; what you “deserve” is what keeps the machine stable.