Politics and the art of compromise Politics is defined as "the art of compromise". It is essential for a democratic society. Elected officials meet in legislative chambers to craft policies that all voters can live with. Successful politicians quickly learn the survival value of compromise. Economist Donald Wittman (1995:154) correctly observes: "This is what good politicians do: build coalitions and find acceptable compromises." The political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain (1995: 61) also states: "But compromise is not a mediocre way of doing politics; it is an adventure, the only way of doing democratic politics." Reasons why compromise is essential. Politicians must be able to compromise and be good at bargaining with other elected officials. One reason is that to get what is important to them, they must be willing to negotiate with others who also want their support, it is a compromise because everyone wants support for their cause and, in turn, they must also support the cause of someone else. They have to do this kind of bargaining to get enough support to get the votes needed to win for their constituents. If voters don't see that the elected official can bring home the bucks, they won't vote for them in the next election. In other words, without compromise, nothing will be achieved for the constituency and, as a result, the official will probably not continue in the position for long. Likewise, no politician or voter will get everything they want. There must be a majority to implement the policy, which means that almost every time the supporters of the policy will...middle of paper...deserve to have a say in all political decision-making that takes place behind closed doors . , and away from public view. However, the compromise should be more open and accepted by the public, criticized and debated, in order for our society to be considered a true democracy. Bibliography: Sources Bush, G. (1996) "Notable & Quotable". In the Wall StreetJournal, January 26: A10.Crew, M.A., and Twight, C. (1990) "On the Efficiency of Law: A Public Choice Perspective." Public Choice66:15-36Elshtain. JB (1995) Democracy on trial. New York:Basic Books.Sinclair, B. (1996) Vote for Me: Politics in America.American Political Science Association, September 1996.Wittman, D.A. (1995) The myth of democratic failure.Chicago: University of Chicago