ABSTRACT
It is sometimes said that the people who would make desirable political leaders are the very people who refuse to engage in politics. Playing the political game well involves ‘dirtying one’s hands’, frequently engaging in the kinds of actiontypes that good people typically avoid: manipulation, slander, strong-arming, deception and outright lying, and at times the initiation of violence. The willingness to engage in such action-types, the thought continues, signals a corrupt character-just the kind of person we would want to distance from positions of responsibility for the health and wellbeing of our social and political community.
