Why Ambition Is Good in Politics

Jonathan Bernstein: “The way I talk about is that all politicians are ambitious, but the content of that ambition varies, so that one politician might be interested in one or more policy goals, another in fighting for a group, and another mainly in enjoying ‘power’ — that is, bossing people around. Yet another may just be chiefly interested in the general idea of public service. Or many other possible things.”

“Whatever the content of their ambition may be, at first blush they (again, usually) try hard to win elections because winning office is a necessary step to every other goal. So as long as winning doesn’t directly conflict with the content of their ambition, we can usually expect politicians to adjust their policy agenda so that they have a better chance of winning. Which means, all things being equal, that they’ll support popular policies when they run for office — and attempt to achieve popular outcomes such as peace and prosperity if they hold office. That’s good! In a democracy, we want politicians to support popular policies and work to achieve popular outcomes!”

“Even if that means they can fairly be described as ‘shift-shaping opportunists.'”