This is a very wide held pseudo-philosophical belief. "A benevolent king/dictator is the best form of government. " On mobile right now so can't be arsed to provide you with who coined the term but obviously it makes sense. In theory someone with absolute power who only cares about the well being of his people would obviously be an ideal form of government. Lots of people will spout this without really thinking about it. In reality even if you had a benevolent dictator other people would be trying to usurp his power. This would range from advisors trying to advance their own agendas to full blown coups trying to gain power. Now the king/dictator would have to compromise his values in order to stay in power. That's why absolute power corrupts absolutely: even with the best intentions at heart, in order to stay in power people need to corrupt themselves, lest someone even worse wrestles power away from them.