Since I've been allowing myself to indulge in politics these days, quite by serendipity, I stumbled upon this wonderfully lucid piece of gyan. Why does India have such terrible politicians?

Like academics and pickpockets, politicians too have rules which they can break only at great risk. 

The Rules of the Empty Game

Rule No 1 is that only winning matters because the winner takes all. This zero-sum game characteristic of politics has two consequences.

First, the squeamish stay away. Second, the rules are made by those who regard honesty like people usually regard exercise or prayer—something to be admired in others but never emulated.

Rule No 2 is that your political worth is directly proportional to how much money you can bring to the table.

Rule No 3 is that no one but you will be responsible for your day-to-day expenses.

Rule No 4 is that you must recoup your election expenses in the first two years and devote the next three years to generating the margin money for the next election.

Rule No 5 comes out of Rule No 2: the political parties need you to bring in more than money if they are to bank on you.

Rule No 6 is “No squealing”. If you rat on someone, you may be ratted on next. And since you need the money, it is not in your interest to rat. So there is no internal pressure to remain honest.

Rule No 7 is that in the current framework each MP must spend more than the other. This comes out of a Prisoners’ Dilemma sort of situation where, although each MP is best off spending as little as possible, in reality none of them can.

This is because whenever one MP realises that the other is not spending, he can achieve a higher individual payoff by spending more, and thereby hoping to extend his reach amongst potential voters. Given that each MP stands to gain by spending more if the other does not spend, what ends up happening is that they all spend as much as they can.

If you're a Friedman fan, the last lines would remind you of his famous words abt spending your own money vs. somebody else's money.