Political institutions and practical wisdom: between rules and practice

To be good citizens or statespersons, we need practical wisdom-the moral skill and will to know how to do the right thing in particular situations. Institutions work best when they cultivate practitioners who have the wisdom and judgment to choose the right aims and pursue them in the best way possible. Practical wisdom can be destroyed, however, when institutions rely too heavily on rules and incentives that encourage people to compete for extrinsic rewards or to avoid punishments. This text focuses on the ethical implications of institutional failures and identifies competitive utility-maximizing as a frequent source of such failures.

Cameron shows how institutions rely on rules and incentives, but they need practitioners with the virtues and character to make good decisions. Wise practitioners are not only an antidote to excessive partisanship, neoliberal competitiveness, and institutional corruption; they are an essential ingredient of any democracy based on citizenship and the common good.