List of political leaders renowned for their integrity



This is a list of politicians renowned for their honesty, integrity and probity.

Within political science, honesty in politicians is an example of a valence issue - something on which all voters agree that "more is better than less". This is not to say that all voters want their politicians to be honest all the time. As an extreme example, few criticize Churchill or Roosevelt for intentionally misleading the Axis powers during World War II. According to political scientist John Mearsheimer, it is widely believed that honest politicians are rare. Mearsheimer has however argued that evidence shows political lying is much less common than is generally assumed, especially in international politics, where it is very rarely effective. He concedes it is relatively common for politicians to lie to their own domestic publics. Former House Representative Bob Edgar has argued that folk who enter politics are typically motivated by a desire to do good, and start out just as honest as regular folk, but that they can be corrupted by money in politics.

List

 * Aristeides — the Athenian leader praised by Socrates and Herodotus as "the best and most honourable man that Athens ever produced". Plutarch relates that, when Aristeides became unpopular, an illiterate boor asked him to mark his ballot for the ostracism.  Aristeides asked what harm the accused had ever done to him and the reply was, "I don't even know the man.  But I do know that I'm sick and tired of hearing him called 'The Just!'".  Aristeides silently marked his name upon the token and was exiled.


 * Arvind Kejriwal - activist and politician from India and founder of Aam Aadmi Party.


 * Aung San Suu Kyi — female leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma.


 * Marcus Aurelius — last of the Five Good Emperors, "he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life."


 * Rómulo Betancourt — the first Venezuelan leader to hand over power to a constitutional, democratic successor. "If moral authority and high principles counted, Rómulo Betancourt loomed as a titan in the history of Venezuela."


 * Cincinnatus — the Roman senator who accepted life as a farmer after his family fortune was lost. He was twice summoned to become dictator of Rome and defeated its enemies but relinquished the office immediately once his duty was done.  He was seen as a model for politicians of the United States and the city of Cincinnati is named after him.


 * Gandhi — Indian politician who helped achieve independence with non-violent resistance.


 * William Ewart Gladstone — Victorian chancellor and prime minister noted for his fiscal and moral probity.


 * Václav Havel — last president of Czechoslovakia and the first of its successor, the Czech Republic. He was renowned for his moral principle of "living in truth".


 * Martin Luther King — campaigner for civil rights in the USA.


 * Abraham Lincoln — The 16th President of the United States, Lincoln was sometimes referred to as "Honest Abe."


 * Ernest Vandiver — reforming Governor of Georgia from 1959 to 1963. Justice Joseph Quillian praised his integrity and fairness, "He is a person who has never learned to lie."


 * George Washington — one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was compared with Cincinnatus when he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief after the independence of the United States was recognised. King George III called him "the greatest character of the age".  The famous story of the cherry tree and "I cannot tell a lie" is thought to be apocryphal.