Is incompetent management bad management ?

Not necessarily.

If they stay out of the way, they're just ineffective management.

@atheist Fully Agree

Yes.

@atheist in this scenario they are a waste of money and a wasted opportunity for a good leader to take over. Still bad.

@rEaL-jAsE Technically yes , politically no

@gosubinit eeeehhh, if they have a net-zero effect, I agree they could be better, but if they're not having a negative impact, are they *bad*?

I've had bad managers. I prefer managers that I can ignore.

@atheist Negative impact...

They cost money without profit?

@atheist are you considering a dev-peace-of-mind point of view, or the business perspective?

I would say that incompetent is a degree of bad, just less bad than actual bad :)

@gosubinit I'm considering a "things I can change vs things that impact me" point of view. I'm unlikely to have the power to get rid of them, but they may have an impact on me.

@IntrusionCM what is the purpose of management? One option is they're a go between, handle and filter communication. Not a great answer. Another is they should facilitate open trusting discussion. A better answer.

My scale of bad is "They shouldn't break the law by making discriminatory, rude comments verging on bullying and harassment".

I prefer incompetent management, but I may have a colored opinion of this.

@atheist incompetent management that gets out of your way is actually in the top 20% of the best management around.
Managers who are constantly obnoxious and rude are more frequent than not.
Answering @Zer07777 's question, I would say that there is a provable correlation, but not a very strong one.

Do other kinds exist?

management is only good if you don't notice it happening.

Is an incompetent Doctor a bad Doctor?

Yes it is. Is it evil or malicious now that is another story. Incompetent is always the opposite of good else you would not call it that.