Variation on a Theme

A possible refinement of "power corrupts...":

Power that is felt to be undeserved engenders feelings of paranoia in the powerful. This paranoia naturally leads to abuse of power, which heightens the sense of guilt/inadequacy, leading to further paranoia, etc.

Only holds true for certain personality types, of course. The possibility of a neurotic, guilt-racked dictator is somewhat intriguing, though. Paranoia and the abuse of power go hand in hand, as in Stalin, Ahmadinejad, Joe McCarthy, and Bush/Cheney (obviously these represent varying levels of abuse).

EDIT: Inspiration for this actually comes from this here Joe Posnanski article on LeBron James/Nike.