Passage from “Politics as a Vocation”:
The
leadership of a state or of a party by men who (in the economic sense of the
word) live exclusively for politics and not off politics means necessarily a ‘plutocratic’
[rule of the wealthy, after the Roman god of wealth and the underworld,
Pluto—Prof.] recruitment of the leading political strata. To be sure, this does
not mean that such plutocratic leadership signifies at the same time that the
politically dominant strata will not also seek to live ‘off’ politics, and
hence that the dominant stratum will not usually exploit their political
domination in their own economic interest (pp. 85-6)
Meaning:
This
passage means the people should make up government and political parties who do
not rely on politics to support their families. Even though they do not need
politics to physically survive, these men still seek opportunities to make
money off of politics. They usually exploit their political position in their
own economic interest.
Why I chose this Quote
I chose
this passage because it shows us the nature of the politicians who are either
rich or are middle class, both of them do as it benefits to them not the
public.
Kajal,
ReplyDeleteThat's true, even the rich and poor sometimes have the same motives. Money, prestige, and power does have a significant impact on people. As someone said, for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred men who can stand adversity. Man just does not know how to deal with money and power. But I think max is saying that it might be easier to trust the dominant class. It is kinda difficult for the plutocrat to understand the plight of the average man, whereas the man that comes from humble begins understand the struggles of ordinary people.