Can Politicians Act Selflessly for the Greater Good?

[Alesak]

By this I mean politician voluntarily acting in interest of wider group of people than current constituency, possibly for political self-harm. Constituency is group of people having say in who's going to be the next leader or how long is current leader going to last. Different members of constituency have obviously different power.

Example of such behaviour would be if current US president limited power of AIPAC or oil industry or any of bazzilion special interest group - even if it meant negative consequences for him. Or taxed rich people more, significantly reduced defense budget etc...

Another examples would be voluntarily abandoning dictatorship.


My examples would be:
Jimmy Carter
Nikita Kruschev
Mikchail Gorbachev
Lee Kwan Yew
Jigme Singye Wangchuck

 

[jduster]

Jimmy Carter?

That's exactly the point. Those kinds of politicians may genuinely mean well but lack the ability to manage the country competently.

 

[Evo]

Re-opening of a closed thread.