We want our politicians to be good persons and act morally on our behalf. Yet they continually fail to live up to our expectations. We think of a great many of our politicians as corrupt, self-serving and, at best, amoral. They lie, obfuscate, and avoid answering important questions and rarely, if ever, accept responsibility for their errors or the bad things they do. Conversely, politicians are quick to claim credit for successes for which they were only tangentially responsible or if they happen to be the lucky recipient of a fortuitous series of events.  It is no wonder then that our faith in political institutions and the men and women who serve in them is very low. In the 2018 Ipsos MORI Veracity Index, only 19% of a representative sample of a 1001 British adults trusts politicians to tell the truth. (The one group who scored lower were advertising executives with 16% while nurses, in contrast scored, 96%.)

What is puzzling is that politicians, especially those in democratic societies who need to win elections to gain and retain power and who are subject to continual scrutiny by a free press, repeatedly act in ways that they know will erode their likeability, question their moral probity, and diminish our trust in them. For a great many people, the sentiments of Alvy Singer (the protagonist in Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall) expresses a common view about the morality of politicians. 

‘Lyndon Johnson? Are you kidding? Lyndon Johnson is a politician. You know the ethics those guys have. It’s like a notch below child molester.’

Why are the reputations of politicians so low and why are they unable to rectify this?  There is no doubt that some politicians are reprehensible, selfish, egotistical, self-serving and even evil individuals. The lure of power and glory attracts persons who are not suitable for democratic politics, where the only legitimate use of political power ought to be to achieve good and worthwhile ends that serve the best interests of the electorate. Despite this, to claim that all, even the majority, of politicians in a country such as the UK are immoral and that they engage in politics for the purpose of self-aggrandisement and enrichment is to make a serious error.  Many (perhaps most) politicians enter politics to do good and serve their fellow citizens as best they are able, even if they fail to achieve this goal on many occasions. What is more, given that politicians are not stupid or unaware of the public’s views of them, why do they continue to act in ways that the general public perceive as deeply problematic?  In short, given the incentive to be liked, the scrutiny of the press and the need to act morally and transparently, why do politicians behave in a manner that undermines their credibility and trustworthiness?

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"Engaging in dirty hands actions is always difficult, demanding, dangerous, and morally polluting. It should not be done lightly or flippantly but only when no alternative courses of action are possible."

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