What are the qualities of a great statesman? Illustrate your answer with examples from the past and present.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others. 

Niccolo Machiavelli


Statesmanship may be considered either as a branch of applied philosophy, involving knowledge of the true ends of political society and the means by which they may be attained; or as a practical art, the objects of which are the achievement and retention of political power. For Plato, statesmanship is part of knowledge that any wide and virtuous man may possess. For Machiavelli, it means the craft of becoming and remaining a ruler. A true stateman is one who is able to strike the golden mean between the idealism of Plato and the earthly pragmatism of Machiavelli.

                Many writers and philosophers have written about statesmanship as a science and as an art. The test of a statesman is not his ability or skill of analysis but his uncanny knack of sensing possibilities. When Solon said that he had given the Athenians not the best laws but the sort of laws that they needed, he exemplified the fundamental character of statesmanship.

                A statesman is one who uses the religious, social and political institutions to his advantage, while a politician at best will only serve these slavishly. A good statesman would also use the persistent traditions and tendencies of action which characterise a people. He will, for example, consent to the survival of anomalies if the pain of transition to a new form of organisation can be mitigated. When circumstances are all equal, the statesman would display, in the words of Jefferson, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind”, even when they run counter to his own opinions or beliefs. Even a leader who makes a violent breach with the past, will wisely pay attention to forces worth conciliating. Like Lenin, he will adopt a new economic policy or like his followers make of the dead leader’s mausoleum a shrine of a kind familiar of national traditions. ‘Putting old wine in new bottles’ is a permanent task of a statesman. This is because he cannot bring about any change unless it is under the guise of continuance of tradition.

                A good statesman is different from a politician. A statesman like a doctor must have a cure and also have a mind to get his fees. The doctor has a responsibility whether he is a consultant or a practitioner. A politician can escape from a bad policy decision by throwing the blame on political pressure. A statesman cannot absolve himself of responsibility for a bad decision. This would mean aggravating his failure, not justifying it.

Apart from the general duty to give the best possible advice and action, a good statesman has to give thought to the concept of expansionism. Men would like to belong to their own group in a small state than to be members of an alien community. But they would not like to accept that theirs is a small state and hence would be prepared to pay a price to make their small town a great city. With the rise of nationalism, this feeling is more intense now. Beside this, a statesman should also be a shrewd economist. There has never been any period in history when the prosperity of the state was not regarded as a test of political skills. But today most statesmen should find their glory in real or apparent economic successes. Whether the statesman is the servant, the ally or the master of the great economic forces of the state, he must stand to them in closer relation than was possible in earlier days, when he could afford to choose between the policy of power or a policy of plenty.

The success of a statesman thus depends on his pragmatism, as defined by the context of his age. With the growth of independence, ethical standards, the problem of morality of statesmanship began to emerge in a new form. Now a statesman has duties to perform or advice to give which in a private individual might seem unethical or even to be a sin. The making of war or the execution of criminals are examples. It is, however, accepted that the safety of the state is the supreme law and this is a valid rule for the public man. But again, this gives room for excesses and therefore it is now agreed that the circumstances in which a statesman find himself alter the case. This dilemma of the statesman has to be effectively tackled by the statesman himself. In fact, his accountability is part of the statesmanship.

Thus the rule of a statesman is of crucial importance in the governance of a state or country. While the role of politicians are short-lived, as are politics, the statesmen give a state its fibre, its tradition and its identity. There have been several statesmen throughout the ages from Themistocles of Greek times to Jefferson, or Jawaharlal Nehru who have embellished the role of statesmen by their genius in running the affairs of state which in modern times can be likened to a tight-rope walk or skating on thin ice. The statesman needs patience, stout-heartedness and honesty of purpose.