Integrity in democratic politics
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148117744956 |
| Date | 01 May 2018 |
| Author | Edward Hall |
| Published date | 01 May 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117744956
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2018, Vol. 20(2) 395 –408
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148117744956
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Integrity in democratic
politics
Edward Hall
Abstract
The complaint that many professional politicians lack integrity is common. However, it is unclear
what such a judgement amounts to. Taking various codes of political ethics in the United Kingdom as
my starting point, I examine the extent to which we can understand political integrity as a matter of
politicians adhering to the obligations that official codes of ethics prescribe and, in a more general sense,
the public-service ethos that underpins these codes. I argue that although this way of approaching the
issue usefully draws our attention to an important class of positional duties that apply to politicians,
commitment to principled political causes plays a further, indispensable role in coherent assessments
of political integrity. In consequence, I claim that politicians of integrity succeed in furthering their
deepest political commitments while avoiding malfeasance or misconduct. As such, the ascription of
political integrity can often only be made when assessing a long train of action.
Keywords
Bernard Williams, compromise, political conduct, political ethics, political integrity,
political theory
Integrity is commonly seen as a property of character that is ‘most obviously exhibited in
a person’s resistance to sacrificing or compromising his convictions’ (Scherkoske, 2013:
29). Troublingly, this suggests that successful politicians cannot have integrity because
accomplishing things in politics often requires sacrifices or compromises of this sort.
However, many of us do believe that some politicians display integrity if they commit to
various public-spirited ends throughout their career, while others lack it if they violate the
public’s trust, sell-out their commitments for material rewards or capitulate on their con-
victions too easily in the face of political opposition. Are we mistaken? I think not. To see
why, we need to ask whether there is such a thing as a distinctive kind of political integrity
that can play an important role in our assessment of political conduct. In this article, I
argue that there is and that it can make sense of our judgement that some politicians do
act with integrity, even if they engage in certain kinds of behaviour which clash with the
common view of integrity described above.
Taking various codes of political ethics in the United Kingdom as my starting point, I
examine the extent to which we can understand political integrity as a matter of politicians
adhering to the obligations that official codes of ethics prescribe and, in a more general
The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Corresponding author:
Edward Hall, The University of Sheffield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK.
Email: edward.hall@sheffield.ac.uk
744956BPI0010.1177/1369148117744956The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsHall
research-article2017
Original Article
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