Dirty Hands and Clean Gloves: Liberal Ideals and Real Politics

Abstract:     
Can liberal ideals clean up dirty politicians or politics? This article doubts they can. It disputes that a ‘clean’ liberal person might inhabit the dirty clothes of the real politician, or that a clean depoliticised liberal constitution can constrain real world dirty politics. Nevertheless, the need for a democratic Prince to wear clean liberal gloves offers a necessary and effective political restraint. However, it also means that citizens share the hypocrisy and dirt of those who serve them - for we legitimise the dirtiness of politics by requiring politicians to seem cleaner than we know they ever can be in reality.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: Democratic politics, dirty hands, legitimacy, public, private, Machiavelli, Rawls, Weber

Accepted Paper Series