A Foreign Policy for Knaves - Reason.com: "It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave: Though at the same time, it appears somewhat strange, that a maxim should be true in politics, which is false in fact. But to satisfy us on this head, we may consider, that men are generally more honest in their private than in their public capacity, and will go greater lengths to serve a party, than when their own private interest is alone concerned. Honour is a great check upon mankind: But where a considerable body of men act together, this check is, in a great measure, removed; since a man is sure to be approved of by his own party, for what promotes the common interest; and he soon learns to despise the clamours of adversaries...
So here Hume appears to be saying that the problem is not private interest itself, but rather the institutional context in which that interest is pursued. Libertarians are familiar with the many arguments for why people are likely to act better in a private capacity than in a "public," i.e., governmental, capacity: the incentives are markedly different. In the private sphere we tend to deal with other people face to face; we bear most of the costs of our actions; and we enjoy most of the benefits. This induces a sense of responsibility, and experience is a hard teacher. In contrast, politicians and bureaucrats spend other people's money (obtained by force), have other people do the heavy lifting (how many personally invaded Iraq?), and hardly ever suffer the consequences of their bad decisions. Even being denied reelection after a major blunder is rare. No one was fired after the 9/11 attacks or the Iraq invasion, but some were promoted or awarded Medals of Freedom."
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