The politician’s better angel

Abstract

Believe it or not, politicians have the capacity to do genuine good, unconnected to self-serving purposes. Indeed, much of the moral progress of the last two centuries was due to the actions of politicians—the end of slavery in the British Empire and the United States, the collapse of communism in Russia, the end of apartheid in South Africa, not to mention the rights movements around the world (on behalf of women, children, gays, and people of color). All such changes required superior political leadership, but they did not occur without a price being paid—a political price that in some cases is still being paid.

Is man an ape or an angel?

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech at Oxford, November 25, 1864, in The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, Anthony Jay, ed. (Oxford: 1997), p. 119. Rejecting Darwinian theory, Disraeli came down on the side of the angels. Given his opinion of the lack of courage among politicians, that might come as a surprise. Maybe not.