Dirty hands and clean gloves: Liberal ideals and real politics

Can liberal ideals clean up dirty politicians or politics? This article doubts they can. It disputes that a 'cleana' liberal person might inhabit the dirty clothes of the real politician, or that a clean depoliticized liberal constitution can constrain real-world dirty politics. Nevertheless, the need for a democratic prince to wear clean liberal gloves offers a necessary and effective political restraint. It also means that citizens share the hypocrisy and dirt of those who serve them - for we legitimize the dirtiness of politics by requiring politicians to seem cleaner than we know they ever can be in reality. © The Author(s) 2010