Relationship Between Politics and Ethics

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there lies some similarities between politics and ethics, still then there are some differences between the two.

Political philosophy is a study of the different forms of government and their operations. Politics compares the different forms of government and studies its constitutions in order to draw the picture of the best form of a government.

Ethics on the other hand is a study of a man, his character, intention, and desire etc. in order to assess his conduct. The scope of ethics in this sense is wider and altruistic.

Both ethics and politics are concerned with the ideas of duty, responsibility etc. The moral thinker makes a theoretical and analytical study in order to consider what responsibility is and what is not.

The politician also does the same job but the extra work that he does is to fix up responsibility and recommend the quantum of penalty on the wrong door. He does it for the smooth running of the government.

The moralist instills a sense of discrimination between right and wrong but can not recommend anything. The laws of the state are externally imposed upon the people but moral laws are self-imposed. Muirhead have correctly pointed out that you can not make men moral by acts of parliaments.

Politics is basically a descriptive and factual science as it studies functioning of government at the time of peace and war. Ethics studies the human conduct with reference to a particular norm. Thus it is a normative science. It studies what ought to be, not what actually occurs or what is the case.

The aim of politics is to attain public good or expediency at any cost. It gives more emphasis on the end not on the means always.

Barring a few exceptions like Gandhiji, who consider means to be important than the end, politicians in general aim at the end, that is the public good. The moralist on the other hand, aims at the moral excellence of the individual, with a view to set a standard before other people.

The aim of the moralist is that each man should be a better man. Thus the ‘good’ recommended by the moralists is the universal good, not mere public good. The authority of ethics is higher that of politics. In civilized modem states the political laws are grounded on ethical considerations which are nothing but the lateral will of the people.