POLITICAL ETHICS

In the history of ideas and in the constitutional history of western civilization there exist three approaches of political ethics. The first one is oriented towards the personality of the politician and the citizen. the second one towards political institutions, the third one towards the results of politics. In the antiquity person-oriented and institution-oriented political ethics had about the same weight. In the Middle Ages personalism predominated. in modern times institutionalism. The change of paradigm occured in the Italian Renaissance. At the same time an issue-oriented evaluation of politics spred out, in the beginning without. later on with paying attention to moral standards. The author gives a survey of the three lines of development. He argues in favour of a synthesis of the three approaches in discussion with non-western cultures.