Human Nature and Government

I was thinking that various political parties have different conceptions of human nature, which are evident in their policies.

For example, consider attitudes toward charity. When the Australian Liberal party saying we should rely on voluntary donations to charity, they place a (perhaps misguided) faith in participants in free markets to give money to the poor (say, by setting up, and donating to, a charitable institution). In doing so, they affirm that they believe human nature is good enough to ensure that the most destitute will be looked after by the more fortunate individuals. An individual who doesn’t believe this may believe it necessary to charge a higher tax rate than the Liberals would. ie, the Australian Labor party.

Any dimension of policy could be analysed with the respect to the party's implied ideas about human nature.

Gandhi had problems

And was supposedly a paedophile.
15/3/07: The bracketed parts of this quote made me feel slightly inhuman, although, according to it, I am becoming more human.

"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, [that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals]"
-from Reflections on Gandhi, George Orwell, 1949