An earlier post I did in April 2017 is worth a rerun
In my 30s, as a senior local politician, I felt the pull between loyalties to local constituents; to party colleagues; to official advisers; and to my own conscience – and indeed developed a diagram for students to show the 4 very different pressures (audiences) to which politicians are subjected –
- local voters (if the electoral system is based on local constituencies);
- the party;
- the officials (and laws) of the particular government agency they had entered;
- their conscience.
Politicians, I argued, differ according to the extent of the notice they took of each of the pressures coming from each of these sources – and the loyalties this tended to generate. And I gave names to the 4 types which could be distinguished – eg populist; ideologue; statesman; maverick.
- The "populist" (or Tribune of the people) simply purports to gives the people what (s)he thinks they want - regardless of logic, coherence or consequences.
- The "ideologue" (or party spokesman) simply reflects what the party activist (or bosses) say - regardless of logic etc.
- The "statesman" (or manager) does what the professional experts in the appropriate bit of the bureaucracy tell him/her - regardless of its partiality etc
- the "maverick" (or conviction politician) does what they think right (in the quiet of their conscience or mind - no matter how perverted)
I tried to suggest that the effective politician was the one who resisted the temptation to be drawn exclusively into any one of these roles. Each has its element of truth - but it is when someone blends the various partialities into a workable and acceptable proposition that we see real leadership,
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