Some people believe that in order to be effective, political leaders must yield to public opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise. Others believe that the most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently

Public opinion is the essential element in democracies. However, by taking into consideration of the size of the population, it is not usually possible to ask public’s opinion about every action that the governments would make.In order to accelerate decision making process in democracies, citizens elect leaders who represent his voters’ view in the political area. Although it is important for a leader to behave according to public opinion, a leader should not abandon his principles for the sake of compromise. A leader who claims that his primary concern ,when deciding actions is the public opinion, usually cannot be trusted by his citizens and other countries’ governers in the political area.

To begin with, leaders might manipulate the facts to get the support of public for the actions they desire. Hence, a leader who asserts his actions are based on public opinion as often as not distorts the reality and manipulates the facts for his own sake. For example, Hitler was elected by Germans in 1930’s and he claimed that the took the support of German nation for his actions. His actions leaded to a world war which had devastating results for both parties in the world especially for Jews. Even though he was an elected leader, it is impossible to claim that his goverment’s misbehaviour and massacre towards the Jews was supported by the majority of public. He undermined the scope of his actions and lied to his citizens. Hence, public support was cultivated not because of realities but due to distorted facts. As in the case of example, leaders can easily misdirect public so populace should not trust these type of leaders.

In addition, as well as his citizens, the political leaders in other countries cannot trust this kind of leader. Hence, behaviours of this kind of leader undermine the position of his country in the political area of the world. In order to become an economically powerful country, a state should have strong trade relationships with its neighbors. Political relations are also essential for creating strong bounds between countries. However, when a leader acts in way which might hurt the relation of two country, the other leaders would not trust him and do not want to take their trade relationships further. For example, petroleum and natural gas reserves of Iran should make Iran one of the most affluent countries in the worlds. However, their leaders’ hostile attitude towards Christian countries, especially America, leaves Iran alone in political area. As a result, Iran could not enjoy his economical potential because of the other countries could not trust actions of their leaders.

Finally, some people might claim a leader should only consider ,without considering problems stated above, public opinion when deciding an action. Although public opinion is important, democracy is not a regime in which majority of public oppress the minority. Hence, leaders and governments should protect the rights of the minorities in their actions. However, taking public opinion might weaken the position of people who do not agree with public opinion. For example, in countries where majority of populace believe in Islam, public opinion would lead to an Islamic regime. However,this type of religious regimes have devastating effects for atheist and homosexuals.As a result, governments should consider all parties’ interest when making decisions not only majority under the name of “public opinion.”