Politics as a Moral Problem

The new democracies of eastern Europe are sunk into a deep malaise, says Kis (philosophy, Central European U., Budapest), but as long as the old democracies of the West stand firm, the pessimism of citizens in the new will eventually dissipate. Alas, the Western democracies are suffering the same loss of trust by their people, and there is a widespread sense that democratic politics is in a state of moral decay. He explores the issue, not from the perspective of what political leaders should do, but of how ordinary citizens should judge the way leaders respond to the challenge of morality. Politika mint erkölcsi problema was translated by Zoltán Miklósi. Only names are indexed. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)