Leadership ethics and the problem of Dirty Hands in the political economy of contemporary Africa

Abstract

The article discusses problems of poor governance and corruption in Africa within the framework of wider philosophical and political debates between universalism and relativism, idealism and realism, as well as individualism and communitarianism. Firstly, the author claims that the realist approach to political and leadership ethics fails to differentiate between descriptive and prescriptive elements of governance and can thus easily be used to justify ‘Dirty Hands’ of the leaders in the name of the greater national good, even in cases in which self-interest is the only motivational force for actions that undermine ordinary codes of social and personal ethics by public officers. Secondly, the article shows how the failing of public trust in government and the weakness of the state further enforce sub-national communitarian politics that tend to be ethnically based and exclusive, and thus, violate the core of public ethics, that is, the requirement for impartiality. Finally, the article suggests idealistic universal principles for public (service) ethics to be introduced as complementary rather than competing with local, socially and culturally bound ‘private’ ethics. This requires that, on the one hand, we need to understand better the complex historical, economic and social circumstances and transitional political arrangements in African countries. On the other hand, we need to invest more in reflective civic and professional ethics education that adopts a balanced view between political realism and idealism as the starting point for institutional reforms as well as for long term attitude- and behavior- change.