Is the concept of natural selection relevant in an economic or political context?

Economics: This is how you think about it. In Dec. 2001, the US energy company Enron collapsed, prompting much debate about the coporate culture in the company. Enron's chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was a strong advocate of "Darwinian" management, with constant staff appraisals and the automatic sacking of anyone with the lowest performance rating. The suicidal actions of a "whistleblower" Sherron Watkins brought Skilling's "Darwinian" company crashing down to the ground.

Politics: Soon enough after Darwin's publication of The Origin of the Species, a man named Herbert Spencer started advocating that it was the "duty" of the more "civilized" countries to colonize/ take over the "less" civilized countries. (Social Darwinism). This led to the Scramble for Africa, etc. Social Darwinism also was used not only to justify colonialism, but also racism. The whole idea of the "Aryan superman" began to spring, and soon Jews, etc. were loosing the few rights they had gained between 1850-1880. Needless to say, this eventually led the rise of eugenics, and the Holocaust in that manner.