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Whether successful leadership requires that a leader follow high ethical and moral standards is a complex issue: both morality and politics serve to regulate or direct human behavior. They differ, however, in the strength of their regulation and demand, though related, personal qualities. We should to consider this issue separately.

In the first place, we should to define what is a politician’s job? A politician’s job is to build, maintain, and expand the wealth, prosperity and political influence of his nation, district, country, state on what have you. This is his or her primary concern. Moral leaders think in terms of deontological approach to ethics and morals while the political leader thinks in terms of consequences or a utilitarian approach to ethics and morality.

Consider notable social-spiritual leaders- Gandi and martin luther king, and we are likely to judge him highly based on the power of the high ethical and moral standards which they advocated. However, I would be hard pressed to name one successful social or spiritual leader whose leadership was predicted on the advocacy of patently unethical or immoral behavior. We say Adolph Hitler- as evil because we know of his murderous hatefulness that led to the deaths of millions. The reason for this is simple; high standards for one’s own public morality are prerequisites for successful social leadership.

However, in my observation, personal morality is unrelated to effective political leadership. Discussion of the private morality of our political leader reached new heights during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Highly publicized accusations that he had a long term adulterous affairs with gennifer flowers and as president, he has an impropersexual relationship with monica lewisiky. With all the righteous indianation one would think he was the first president to be charged with improper sexual conduct. Much of the press and most of Mr. cliton’s ardent detractors expressed amazement that though the worst of monica lewisiky charges, he maintained extraordinarily high approval ratings for the job he was doing as president. According to reviewing of the private lives of past presidents reveals substantial evidence that Fanklin Roosevelt, dDwight Eisenhower, lyndon Johnson and John kennedy had extramarital affairs. Thmos Jefferson, many believe, fathered children by one of his selves. And Grover Cleverland confessed to having an illegitimate child.

Yet it may be quite sensible to look at President Cliton and his predecessor, and distinguish between their public selves and their private selves, evaluating each independently. Few would agree that these personal moral choices adversely affected his ability to lead.

In sum, history informs us that social spiritual leadership and morality are more closely connected. However, when it come to political leadership, it does not require adherence to high standards of public morality.