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I tend to agree with Stewart here. My provisional hypothesis is that most politicians in mature democracies seek office to implement what they believe is good for the nation and its people. They inevitably compromise (who can agree with every single policy of any political party?) and, sometimes, perhaps frequently, take positions in which they do not believe for, they think, the greater good of getting and retaining power to achieve their most important goals.
I hold this hypothesis because I don't think that there are that many positively evil people around, and I suspect that most of those few tend to get weeded out in the long process of party participation and working up through the ranks and electoral practice. And, in any case, positing bad intentions is not necessary to explain bad results. After all, the apocryphal saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" succinctly says it all.
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