This is the fourth article in a six-piece symposium on Gordon Brown as intellectual. Other articles include:
John Lloyd on an intellectual in power
Iain McLean on other intellectual prime ministers throughout history
Daniel Johnson on Brown the unsophisticated bookworm
Richard Cockett on the question of Brown’s religious faith
Kamran Nazeer on Brown’s book Courage
Discuss this article at First Drafts, Prospect’s new blog
Intellectuals and politicians are often uncomfortable bedfellows, but it’s not surprising that they so often cross-dress, or switch sides, or that so many intellectuals feel like politicians manqué and vice versa. Plato’s ideal of the philosopher-king has never quite disappeared, re-emerging in such varied forms as Marcus Aurelius and Kim Il Sung, William Gladstone or Felipe Cardoso. Yet too close an engagement with ideas can be a disadvantage. When Michael Dukakis was seen reading a book on Swedish planning policy on the beach, this was taken as another sign that he was unsuited for high office.
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