But why do we need politicians? A critical review

Abstract

In response to growing popular dissatisfaction with politics and politicians there has been a marked increase in academic work about anti-politics and depoliticization with numerous scholars seeking to defend politics by restating why it matters. However, these efforts have largely glossed over the related question of why politicians also matter. To fill this gap I propose a typology that captures how the different intellectual perspectives in this debate see the role of politicians – identifying six in particular: procedural, legitimacy, values, authority, persuasion and dissimulation. In doing so I review each contribution and highlight synergies and disagreements between them that in-turn reveal important insights and new lines of inquiry.

Keywords:

• demonization of politicians
• anti-politics
• depoliticization
• democratic disillusionment
• political leadership

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank David Marsh, John Boswell, Matthew Wood, participants at the University of Canberra's Governance Research Forum, and the journal's reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article. Any errors are of course my own.

Notes on contributor

Jack Corbett is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy and the Griffith Asia Institute, at Griffith University, and a Visiting Fellow at the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University. He has a book coming out in 2015 with University of Hawaii Press titled ‘Being Political: Leadership and Democracy in the Pacific Islands’ and has articles published or forthcoming in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, The Pacific Review, Politics and Gender, and Democratization.