Crossword Genius

Judge society led by fools (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

assess

'judge' is the definition.
(assessing is a kind of judging)

'society led by fools' is the wordplay.
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'led by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'fools' becomes 'asses' (ass is a kind of fool).
's' put after 'asses' is 'ASSESS'.

(Other definitions for assess that I've seen before include "'Evaluate, appraise (6)'" , "Gauge, evaluate" , "Estimate, decide the value of" , "Reckon value" , "Weigh up, estimate value" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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