In Harry Potter, Voldemort is the ultimate villain. Along with his Death Eaters and other followers, Voldemort is arguably the worst and most evil character in the series.

When Voldemort takes over both Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the state of the wizarding world seems to be worse than ever before. While the Ministry under Voldemort’s reign is arguably the worst, there are some things that the regular Ministry did that are just as bad if not worse. Here are the main ways that the Ministry of Magic was worse than Voldemort himself.

Allowing For A Lot Of Animal Cruelty

There are a variety of magical creatures in the wizarding world from pets like owls to ferocious beings like dragons. While the intelligence and awareness level of these creatures varies from species to species, there’s no denying that treating animals well and avoiding animal cruelty is an admirable goal.

However, it seems that in the wizarding world that there are way fewer laws in place to protect magical creatures and animals than there are in our own world. The fact that Buckbeak was sentenced to death by getting his head chopped off is just one barbaric example of this.

Glorifying Wizarding Supremacy In Many Ways

When it comes to Voldemort’s ideology of wizards and witches being above Muggles, his beliefs are really more of a difference in degree than a difference of kind compared to the ministry. While the Ministry didn’t support cruelty or death to Muggles, in many subtle ways they supported the message that wizards and witches were better than all other beings.

The fact that they had the fountain in the atrium that reflected this message is just one example of this.

Ignoring The Fact That Voldemort Was Back

How awful the Ministry of Magic was directly related to who was the Minister of Magic at the time. When Cornelius Fudge was Minister, he slowly became worse and worse. While he was never particularly competent, he became downright cruel and promoted lies in order to convince himself nothing was wrong.

He ignored that Voldemort was back and refused to believe it and instead set out on a campaign of lies to convince the wizarding world that Dumbledore and Harry were lying.

Creating The Werewolf Registration Act

The way the Ministry and the wizarding world at largely treated werewolves is pretty despicable. While overall societal prejudice was strong, the Ministry encouraged this and codified it into law with the Werewolf Registration Act.

This meant that every person who was bitten had to register themselves which basically opened themselves up to being discriminated against and being kept from jobs and acceptance in society. This is part of why it was so rare that someone like Lupin would have a job at Hogwarts. 

The legal system in the wizarding world seems wildly inconsistent and full of injustices. Many of the trails featured in the series seem to be done without much of a system in place to ensure some sense of fairness. For example, when Harry is tried in a full-court of law for some underage magic.

The legal system seems poorly constructed and also full of corruption on many levels even before Voldemort has any power over the Ministry.

Sending Dolores Umbridge To Hogwarts And Letting Her Physically Abuse Students

Before Dolores Umbridge becomes a devoted, cruel member of Voldemort’s Ministry, she cruelly does Cornelius Fudge’s bidding. She takes over Hogwarts as High Inquisitor and institutes some pretty cruel and unusual punishments.

The way she made students torture themselves by carving words into the back of her hand was rather sadistic. She had a similar mindset to Voldemort in many ways.

Using The Daily Prophet To Spread Lies And False Narratives

Cornelius Fudge might not be Voldemort levels of evil, but his refusal to see the truth lead him to do a lot of awful things. He used the Daily Prophet as a propaganda machine to spread lies about Voldemort’s return and to try to discredit Harry and Dumbledore.

The fact that the Daily Prophet was so fully controlled by the Ministry like this is rather disturbing and shows how flawed the government was even before Voldemort was in charge.

The Use Of Azkaban As A Prison

The fact that Azkaban seems to be the only magical prison in all of the United Kingdom is truly messed up. The use of a prison that is guarded by Demenostry seems like a huge human rights abuse.

The fact that most prisoners seem to end up here regardless of what they’ve done doesn’t make sense. And, even for those who committed horrible crimes, this is still punishment that shouldn’t be acceptable.

Allowing The Practice Of House-Elves As Slaves To Continue

The treatment of other beings that aren’t witches or wizards is where the Ministry of Magic has its biggest failings. The Ministry of Magic has laws in place that keep house-elves from being free. These laws allow for the enslavement of house-elves and basically keep them from being protected from cruelty and abuse.

The laws about house-elves known as Elf Legislation make it so the elves have to follow rules set out by the Ministry but have no rights. The fact that very few people see this as a problem is also quite troubling.

Not Letting Other Intelligent Creatures Have Full Rights

There Are many specific laws that the Ministry of Magic has in place that allow for mistreatment of all other kinds of beings in the wizarding world. There are multiple other intelligent beings in the wizarding world who have no significant differences from humans such as goblins and centaurs.

However, only humans are given full rights under the law. Other humanoids aren’t allowed to own wands or have the same legal rights, and this is deeply messed up. This mentality doesn’t really make the Ministry all that different from Voldemort at the end of the day.