Politics and morality: the correlation of concepts in modern society

Politics and morality are the most complex relations of politics to the moral norms accepted in society. Both these concepts represent the organizational and control spheres of the society, however, they function in it in different ways.

Morality is designed to restrain a person and not allow him to commit bad and unworthy deeds. If we turn to the history of primitive society, in it it was she who was the main institution for managing small social communities. When the states and political institutions began to emerge, there are already two management systems - morality and politics.

Note that these two concepts have completely different sources for creating a management structure. So, for morality those are traditions, customs and values, that is, it has a normative-value background. As for politics, it is based on the interests of all social groups, which then grow into laws. However, there are situations when the ruling elite imposes on society those laws that protect only its interests, infringing all others.

In addition, politics and morality have many more differences. So, moral requirements are universal and do not refer to any specifically existing situation. In addition, they are very abstract in nature, because they are sometimes difficult to assess. Politics is obliged to take into account specific social conditions that manifest themselves in the event of the development of a particular situation. Her demands are quite specific, therefore, for their violation, punishment is invariably and permanently imposed.

Note that the ratio of these two concepts was of concern to all researchers, since ancient times. So, Confucius, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle believed that good laws still do not guarantee justice in the country, if the ruler does not have the appropriate moral qualities. Politics and morality in their vision were not divided.

The first to theoretically separate these two concepts was tried by N. Machiavelli, who argued that every person has a treacherous nature. Therefore the ruler, when he needs to retain power, is able to resort to the use of any means that do not always correspond to generally accepted moral norms. It should be noted that totalitarian regimes often use immoral and immoral policies. At first glance, it is considered very effective and pragmatic, but over time this state of things leads to the corruption of society and politicians.

It should be noted that the interaction of law and morality at different stages of the development of the society took place in different ways. For example, immoral politics can also be concealed behind liberalistic ideas, which was typical of the Russian political situation of the 90s of the 20th century. The means by which all proclaimed democratic slogans were put into practice were not only immoral, but also criminal in terms of law.

However, we note that the management of society, which is based only on moral principles, is also utopian. The fact is that morality has a limitation in action in terms of time and space. After all, what was previously considered positive, then can be severely criticized, something that is good for someone, for others - it's bad. And all moral principles are very difficult to "translate" into the language of legal norms and managerial decisions.

Thus, politics and morality are concepts that are very difficult to combine in practice. As a rule, specific political interests are always in the foreground. However, society should control the ruling elite, because its policy risks becoming immoral.