Nice to be popular

Richard Holbrooke, writing in this month’s Foreign Affairs, has this to say about what the next US president will have to do:

„And restoring respect for American values and leadership is essential -- not because it is nice to be popular but because respect is a precondition for legitimate leadership and enduring influence.”

Incidentally, this is the most concise way of explaining why democracy is important. Not because involving people in the the conduct of the community’s affairs is more moral ("nice") in some abstract sense. But because the outcomes are better, at least in the long term, if leadership is underpinned by respectful consultation with all those who have to bear the costs. There is nothing more dangerous and illusory in politics than the arrogance of thinking you know better. Few do temporarily and nobody on the long run. Leaders operate in a bubble, power corrupts, and in the end, cut off from the opinion of their peers and of those they are supposed to lead, they all go bankrupt.