Political Morality: The Virtue of Dirty Hands

Stephen de Wijze explores the change in moral boundaries for politicians engaged in realpolitik - those with "dirty hands," doing wrong to do right. The problem of "dirty hands" is used as a central organizing concept in order to develop a political morality, one which provides the license to act outside the constraints of a personal morality without descending into amoral pragmatism. The book seeks to define the moral space between political cynicism and naive political idealism.