Do ethics have a place in the political sphere? Are the moral rules different for politicians? Drawing on ideas advanced by Machiavelli, David McCabe argues that while there is a distinct moral framework governing politics, we can understand its appeal without abandoning either our commitment to genuine moral standards or our ordinary moral beliefs. While we cannot hold politicians to the same moral standards as everyone else, they remain subject to an ethical framework reflecting the specific contours of politics.

Why Political Morality Matters provides an alternative to the realism-moralism impasse, situating key aspects of Machiavelli's realpolitik approach within an argument that draws on the latest political and ethical thought. Central to that argument is a reliance on role morality and the idea that political actors occupy distinct roles that subject them not just to particular practical demands but to particular moral norms as well. The result is an overall moral framework McCabe calls ethical realism, which offers a way of assessing the moral behavior of politicians that is both ethically defensible and realistic.

With case studies ranging from Barack Obama's policy of targeted killing, through Boris Johnson's attempt to prorogue parliament and up to events of the second Trump presidency, Why Political Morality Matters offers an ethical framework for political action that not only allows us to assess politicians' behavior more accurately, but can also help combat the cynicism many feel as they contemplate the political domain.