Previously, I have argued that principled is a bad quality in a politician. This leaves the question: what makes a good politician? What should one look for in a leader?
Before answering that question, we need to actually answer a more fundamental question: What do we want for politicians? Calling them "political leaders," we usually say that we want them to "lead." Then, we would relate to how, says, a CEO leads a company: by defining and articulating its vision, by taking initiative. To borrow from Christianity, we would imagine that our political leaders like shepherds, herding us toward a better world.
Well, except that most people would object to the whole politician-as-shepherd analogy above. In politics, most of us already have our own sets of principles. In fact, most of us even have policy preferences. A Democrat, for example, may want better welfare, more educational investment, more conservation, and peaceable approach to foreign policies; a Republican may want smaller government, national dignity, traditional family values, and lower taxes. Many of us may even champion specific policies.
Thus, we need no shepherd. Instead, we need agents of change. We want our politicians to make our principles a reality. Or, at the very least, working toward realization of our principles.
A politician quality depends on how well that politician realizes collective principles, dreams, and desires the people. Important (very important, in fact) disclaimer: this means that if the people want racism, terrorism, etc., a good politician will unleash such evils. Luckily, most human beings are, fundamentally, good. Furthermore, the job of teaching values do not belong to politicians. So, we are good there. Back to the topic: for politicians, good qualities are those that help the implementation of their people's wills.
So, what are those qualities.
First: engagement. Some synonyms: charisma, inspiring. Actions start with wills. Wills start will caring and engagement. Without engagement, there is no will; without will, there is no action; without action, countries collapse. The first, and most important job, of a politician is to engage the population, to make them believe in themselves, to instill empowerment in their hearts. Without this, nothing else happens.
Second: unity. Synonyms: empathy, public trust. What differentiate a community (be it a town, a state, or a nation) from an individual is sheer quantity. However, quantity is useless if the community tears itself into many small warring factions. This is the immediate cause of most state failures. For a community to mobilize its force to bear on its challenges, the people must unite; they must trust each other; they must feel for each other. The leaders of the community must foster this unity, or else the community will remain a sand castle: collapse at first wave. To solve big problems, to defend dignity, to make its principles walk on this earth, a community must unite. And it's the politicians job to ensure this unity.
Third: communication. There are 2 sides to communication: to the people and from the people. The former includes analysis of the situation, explanation of choices, and report of progress; the latter includes composition of public will, translation of will to concrete policies, and resolve of grievances. Communication coordinates collective actions; without it, the mass people would spend more time stepping on each other toes than getting things done. Public communication poses 2 major challenges: one, there are a lot of people (anywhere from a few millions to 1.5 billions); two, the policy choices are generally complex (quick, should interest rate be 1.5% or 1.75%?) and the people generally don't have time (people have full-time jobs to do, you know). The politicians, as agents of change, must facilitate this. First, they must bridge between people and communities so that millions can share ideas; second, they must simplify the issues and do the research on the behalf of their people.
Forth: transparency. We talked about trust between citizens above. Now, let's talk about trust between citizens and their governments. Without trust between citizens and governments, the people won't let the politicians to lead, to bridge, to speak and act on their behalves. And how to build this trust? Its basis is transparency.
Fifth: loyalty and bravery. If trust opens the door for citizenship activism, patriotism and loyalty drive the citizens into the door. However, those are 2-way streets: for citizens to fight for their countries, their leaders must first fight for them. Loyalty and bravery from politicians give the citizens the fuzzy feeling that let them charge onto Normandy beach heads, or to sip coffee while bombs and bullets whizzed by.
Engagement, unity, communication, transparency, and loyalty. A good politician must have these 5 characters, at least to some degree. Absence (or, even a very low level) of any of these spells disaster. Well, maybe not disaster. I would not expect a dorky (i.e. non-engaging, very uncharistmatic) to go far. However, if a person without the 5 grabs power, one must sunder for the poor country (or, probably the stupid country) led by such person.
