Declining levels of political trust and voter turnout, the shift towards populist politics marked by appeals to ‘the people’ and a rejection of ‘politics-as-usual’, are just some of the commonly cited manifestations of our culture of political disaffection. Democratic politics, it is argued, is in crisis. Whilst considerable energy has been expended on the task of lamenting the status of our politics and pondering over recommendations to tackle this perceived crisis, amid this raft of complaints and solutions lurks confusion. This (...) paper seeks to explore the neglected question of what the precise nature of the crisis with which we are confronted involves, and, in so doing, to go some way towards untangling our confusion. Taking my cue from Machiavelli and his value-pluralist heirs, I argue that there is a rift between a morally admirable and a virtuous political life. Failure to appreciate this possibility causes narrations of crisis to misconstrue the moral messiness of politics in ways that lead us to misunderstand how we should respond to disenchantment. Specifically, I suggest that: we think that there is a moral crisis in politics because we have an unsatisfactorily idealistic understanding of political integrity in the first place; and it is a mistake to imagine that the moral purification of politics is possible or desirable. Put simply, our crisis is not moral per se but primarily philosophical in nature: it relates to the very concepts we employ—the qualities of character and context we presuppose whilst pondering over political integrity. (shrink)

This study explored identity conflict dynamics in interpersonal interactions in professionals facing ethically charged situations. Through semi-structured interviews, we conducted a qualitative study among doctors and nurses working for the English National Healthcare Service and analyzed the data with grounded theory approaches. Our findings reveal that identity conflict is triggered by three micro processes, namely cognitive and emotional perspective taking, as well as identifying with the other. In these processes, identity conflict is signaled by emotions and recognized as a clash (...) not only between identities and their values, but also within one identity and its multiple values. Behavioral and psychological outcomes of identity conflict involve seeking peer support, doing reflective practices and identity growth. This article contributes to identity literature by providing a multilevel approach of identity conflict dynamics able to account for both interpersonal and intrapsychic processes, deeply hold values and emotions, as well as crucial behavioral and psychological consequences. (shrink)