Statespeople act as trustees rather than self-interested spoils collectors

Evidence

The politician, though capable of occasional acts of collective value, is primarily energized by myopic self-interest, at times instrumentally linked to the promotion of a sectarian group interest, and in the end, satisfied and even exhausted by playing the game of fortune to collect the personal spoils it delivers to the victors. While politicians could possibly repent and transmute themselves, statespeople define themselves as quintessentially trustees. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 105

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Public officials adopt financialization not from ideology but from state incapacities — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 105; Governors defer to officials who can actually get big things done — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1405