Der Spiegel & Charles Hawley quote

What, one wonders, is the ultimate source of autocratic corruption? Is a certain type of person more likely to strive to become an autocrat because they see power as the clearest path to extreme wealth? Or does the belief in one’s own infallibility lead autocrats to lose the ability to discern between moral and immoral? Or might it be, in some cases, that the wealth one already has and continues to amass is erroneously seen as proof of the rectitude of all that one does? Gold-leafed narcissism, if you will?