POLITICAL ETHICS

1. Background

• Political ethics (sometimes called political morality or public ethics) is the practice of making moral judgments about political action and the study of that practice. 
• As a field of study, it is divided into two branches, each with distinctive problems and with different though overlapping literature. 
• One branch, the ethics of process (or the ethics of office), focuses on public officials and the methods they use. 
• The other branch, the ethics of policy (or ethics and public policy) concentrates on judgments about policies and laws. 
• Both draw on moral and political philosophy, democratic theory, and political science. Political ethics, sometimes called political morality or public ethics, is the practice

of making moral judgments about political action and the study of that practice.

• Ethics is usually defined as the set of moral principles that direct one’s behavior

and define what is considered to be right and wrong. 

• Similarly, political ethics refers to making moral judgments to guide action and methods of decision-making for the public good.

2. Politics and ethics parallel or contradictory

• It is often said that politics, ethics, and personal morality are not always aligned.
• There are different schools of thought on ethics in politics. 
• Some would argue that politicians should stick to universal principles such as justice or fairness to rule better. 
• On the other hand, political realists such as Machiavelli argued that there is no room for ethics in politics or that the ethical principles that govern citizens’ behavior should not bind politicians.
• In fact, political leaders throughout history have often had to make unethical decisions to advance the interests of their nation or state. For realists, politics is an active pursuit of power and nation-states are engaged in constant struggle with one abstract ethical principle that would constrain this pursuit. 
• Political realists like Machiavelli reject ethical principles as they constrain nations in the pursuit of power.

3. Political ethics in a Democracy

• Political ethics in a democracy examines all of these policy areas with this question in mind: what difference should the circumstances of democratic politics make? 
• Those circumstances include the need to make collective decisions that are binding on all citizens, and the diversity of moral and political views in modern societies. 
• Citizens have a right to an equal voice in deciding policies but in a pluralist society, they disagree fundamentally about what policies are right.
• That suggests that even if we believe a policy to be right, we have to consider whether in light of the disagreement it should be modified, an alternative policy adopted, or exemptions allowed. This consideration leads to several important but sometimes neglected subjects of inquiry: the ethics of COMPROMISE, the justifiability of CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, the exercise of official discretion, the scope of CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION, the rights of cultural and linguistic minorities, and the legitimacy of SECESSION.

4. The political philosophy of Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism is a theory of morality, that advocates actions that foster happiness and oppose actions that cause unhappiness.
• Utilitarianism promotes "the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people."
• When used in a sociopolitical construct, utilitarian ethics aims for the betterment of society as a whole.
• Utilitarianism is a reason-based approach to determining right and wrong, but it has limitations.
• Utilitarianism does not account for things like feelings and emotions, culture, or justice.
• Utilitarianism is one of the most powerful and persuasive approaches to normative ethics in the history of philosophy.

5. Ethics as an integral part of the Politics

• Mahatma Gandhi tried to make a bridge between politics and ethics. 
• According to the Mahatma, the end goal of politics is to serve the people, not politics itself.
• Politics can’t be done without morality and ethics. As for morality and ethics, their meaning is to be compassionate and understand the feelings of others. 
• In the same way, Aristotle also believed that ethics and politics are strongly related.
• Ethics examines the good of the individual, while politics examines the good of the state, which he considered to be the best type of community. 
• Along these lines, there are codes of conduct for politicians in many countries, like the U., the US, Canada, and Germany. 

Also in India, there is a code of conduct for the members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

• Any discussion on an ethical framework for governance in a democracy must start with ethical values in politics, experts say. Politicians and those engaged in politics play a vital role in the legislative and executive wings of the state, whose acts of commission and omission in working the Constitution and the rule of law become the point of intervention for the judiciary. 
• The standards set in politics profoundly influence many aspects of governance and the behavior of the people at large.

6. Polity without ethics 

• In the present scenario, experts say, politics is more about competition than doing good for the public and it is no longer about idealism and constructive criticism.
• They say that keeping the recent incidents at the international as well as these events have an impact on the country and the public at large. 
• Experts point out that politicians are also public servants—their actions should be for the public good and their opinion should not be insensitive toward any community.
• They say it should be “we” rather than “they and us” and for a country like India, whose democracy is woven from the threads of different communities, castes, races, religions, and languages, ethical conduct is very essential to be followed to keep this nation bound together. 

• As rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi, politics without principles and ethics would be disastrous.