The doctrine of self-interest rightly understood as the basis for honorable behavior can only be said with a straight face by someone early on in the democracy experiment. It occurs to enough people that their self interest is best served by not behaving with honor that no invisible hand will set things aright.
It's like a series of prisoner's dilemma games on playing field of non-iterative games. There's no incentive for virtue if your only aim is gain.
- Todd Hoff