Introduction -- Hobbes and the mask of power -- Mandeville and the virtues of vice -- The American Revolution and the art of sincerity -- Bentham and the utility of fiction -- Victorian democracy and Victorian hypocrisy -- Orwell and the hypocrisy of ideology -- Conclusion: Sincerity and hypocrisy in democratic politics
Summary
What kind of hypocrite should voters choose as their next leader? The question seems utterly cynical. But, as David Runciman suggests, it is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. The most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy. Political Hypocrisy is a timely, and timeless, book on the problems of sincerity and truth in politics, and how we can deal with them without slipping into hypocrisy ourselves
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-258) and index
