Political Hypocrisy : : The Mask of Power, from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond, Revised Edition - Second Edition / / David Runciman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2018 English
• VerfasserIn: Runciman, David,
• TeilnehmendeR: Runciman, David.
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Edition: Revised
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (300 p.) :; 1 b/w illus.

What kind of hypocrite should voters choose as their next leader? The question seems utterly cynical. But, as David Runciman suggests, it is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. Political Hypocrisy is a timely, and timeless, book on the problems of sincerity and truth in politics, and how we can deal with them without slipping into hypocrisy ourselves. Runciman draws on the work of some of the great truth-tellers in modern political thought--Hobbes, Mandeville, Jefferson, Bentham, Sidgwick, and Orwell--and applies his ideas to different kinds of hypocritical politicians from Oliver Cromwell to Hillary Clinton. He argues that we should accept hypocrisy as a fact of politics--the most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy. Featuring a new foreword that takes the story up to Donald Trump, this book examines why, instead of vainly searching for authentic politicians, we should try to distinguish between harmless and harmful hypocrisies and worry only about the most damaging varieties.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Hobbes and the Mask of Power -- 2. Mandeville and the Virtues ff Vice -- 3. The American Revolution and the Art of Sincerity -- 4. Bentham and the Utility of Fiction -- 5. Victorian Democracy and Victorian Hypocrisy -- 6. Orwell and the Hypocrisy of Ideology -- Conclusion -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index