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Article
“Political Hypocrisy and the Role of Professionals”
International Journal of Applied Philosophy (2010)
  • Lawrence Quill, San Jose State University
Abstract

Defenders of political hypocrisy claim that it is a “lesser evil,” a necessary feature of political life in liberal democracies. Critics assert that hypocrisy undermines trust and, hence, faith in democratic institutions. In this article, I attempt to move beyond this opposition by drawing attention to the party that is largely absent from both sets of arguments: the professional. By refocusing the discussion thus, one may move beyond the structural opposition between “hypocrites” and “anti-hypocrites” that one finds in nearly all accounts of the political hypocrisy, In so doing, this permits us to acknowledge the crucial role that professionals play within modern, procedural democracies, this is not to say that they are immune from those relations of dependency that fosters hypocritical behavior. They are not. But, I suggest that it is to the professional that we must turn to check political hypocrisy’s worst excesses.

Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall 2010
Citation Information
Lawrence Quill. "“Political Hypocrisy and the Role of Professionals”" International Journal of Applied Philosophy Vol. 24 Iss. 2 (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/lawrence_quill/4/