8 - Justifying (and Constraining) Salutary Hypocrisy

Summary

Chapter 8 discusses how trust can emerge between the formal political sphere and the general citizenry. Returning to the discussion of salutary hypocrisy, the chapter notes that people generally distrust hypocrisy. So, even though salutary hypocrisy can facilitate compromise and trust among political actors, that hypocrisy can simultaneously aggravate distrust between political actors and citizens at large. Accordingly, this chapter argues that political actors (principled pragmatists in particular) must justify their apparent hypocrisy and take steps to avoid needlessly aggravating citizens’ cynicism. The chapter suggests that political actors should refrain from excessively demonizing one another, explain why they struck compromises (but only after the fact and with care), and avoid encouraging citizens to develop fantastical understandings of politics.