power corrupts, but for a good cause

Politicians, few would dispute, are a spineless, duplicitous and conniving class who are all too willing to give into corrupting forces (illegal or otherwise).

While that much is clear, it's harder to say why politicians are more unethical than your average citizen. It could be that the profession attracts people who lack moral fiber. More likely, as Lord Acton adaged, it's power itself that makes politicians ethically challenged.

A few researchers from University of Richmond have a generous view of why this might be the case. It's not like once they're in power politicians simply do what they can to keep their clutches on power. As is usual with the human brain, it's far more complicated than that. According to the Richmond researchers, leaders of a group tend to inflate the importance of their group's goals (compared to mere members of that group). In doing so, leaders also are more willing to justify unethical behavior as a means to achieving their group's ends. Even more disturbingly, the higher they see their group's goals, the more easily they are able to justify immoral behavior.

This, of course, is the scary thing about the human brain; we rarely (if ever) do things that we think are outright bad - but we often do bad things in the name of the good (and so they don't seem so bad, really). It's also why pragmatists get uneasy with ideologues and zealots; heaven on earth is a nice idea, but getting there can be an ugly process.