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

The effectiveness of political leader can be determined by the consequences of his decisions. These decisions could either be based on public opinion or principled one, it entirely depends on situation one is facing. Therefore, the two opposite reflections of above statement are true in specific circumstances.

While in power, political leaders encounter many problems. The problem of unemployment, energy crises, infrastructure developments, poverty, education, flood, natural disaster etc. are of public nature problems. On the outset, if some fund is allocated to education sector and subsequently country face the some sort of natural disaster then political should abandon the principled amount that where allocated to education sector and should be invested on people who are in dire need.

On the other hand, if the nature of problem is on some national interest like foreign policies, security issues etc then the principled approach is recommendable. Iran has proliferated uranium and developed nuclear weapons due to security concerns and self safety. Consequently, important penalties and sanctions were imposed on iran. The detergent powder that iran was importing, could not be imported due to sanction that directly effected the common man. Conclusively, if iran would have considered the problems that its nation face after developing of nuclear weapon, iran could have compromised its security concerns.

conclusively, political leader should understand the graveness of problem and adpot the strategy accordingly.
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