Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics by John Mearsheimer

by
December 2011–January 2012, no. 337

Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics by John Mearsheimer

Duckworth Overlook, $29.99 hb, 148 pp, 9780715641569

Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics by John Mearsheimer

by
December 2011–January 2012, no. 337

Politics is a demanding profession that calls for skills of leadership and oratory, as well as management, analysis, and even theatre. Asking a politician to be truthful as well may be looking a gift-horse in the mouth. But we do. Misleading parliament by being ‘untruthful’ (‘lying’ is so reprehensible that it is unparliamentary to accuse a member of it) is a serious offence. In the US presidential system, where the executive is independent of the legislature and the head of government is also head of state, the great deterrent to lying is the authority that Congress has to censure and expel its members and to impeach officials, including the president.

From the New Issue

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.