Might makes right is an aphorism with several potential meanings (in order of increasing complexity):
In English, the phrase is most often used in negative assessments of expressions of power.


The second related idea associated with the phrase connotes that a society’s view of right and wrong is determined, like its perspective on history, by those currently in power.

The term can be used in the descriptive, rather than prescriptive way, in the same sense that people say that “History is written by the victors.” Since every person labels what he/she thinks is good for himself/herself as “right,” only those who are able to defeat their enemies are the ones who can push their idea of what is right into fruition.

In terms of of the law of the Jungle, those who are the strongest will rule others and have the power to determine right and wrong, (also read about; the evil male dominance). 

By this definition, the phrase manifests itself in a normative sense. This meaning is often used to define a proscriptive systematic code for society to follow, as well as while discussing social Darwinism and Weberian themes of the authority of the state (e.g. ‘Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft’).