Spurred to act by an outbreak of cholera, political and religious leaders last week called for Robert Mugabe to be ousted from Zimbabwe. To make this happen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, said that African nations should use force if necessary.

Since coming to power three decades ago, Mugabe has wrecked what was once a beacon of prosperity on the African continent. By seizing privately-held land and other property and implementing disastrous policies, Mugabe and his band of thugs lined their pockets while they indirectly and directly caused the deaths of their countrymen. His brutal regime so lowered the standard of living in Zimbabwe that according to some estimates, a full 1/4 of the population have emigrated to other countries.

Mugabe obtained wealth by using the force of government, or what A.J. Nock referred to as the “political means” (differentiated from the “economic means” in which wealth creation is obtained through voluntary interactions). His actions, and those of countless of other heads of states such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, remind us just how bad unrestrained government can be – how easy it is for an individual to repress millions through an office cloaked in the legitimacy of government.

It’s great that world leaders are now calling for Mugabe’s removal in part due to the recent bout of cholera (for which the government is accused of underestimating), but it’s unfortunate that it has taken this long. And it’s also unfortunate that the common denominator in all these situations – the concentration of political power in one position – has yet to be recognized by many. If it were, and steps were taken to lessen the scope of power granted to one individual, there’d be a lot less Mugabe’s in the world. Not necessarily because there would be less evil men, but because such actions would lessen their ability to inflict harm on others.

For more on this, watch out Bureaucrash’s short video: Crash’d Zimbabwe that documents opposition to Mugabe’s regime at their Embassy in D.C. Also, for some intellectual ammo, check out the Hands Off My Home, Politics Hurt, Stop Statism overviews on Bureaucrash Social and the short paper, “How the Loss of Property Rights Caused Zimbabwe’s Collapose” published by our friends at the Cato Institute a few years ago. And show others you won’t stand for government oppression by rockin’ a killer Stop Statism shirt.