Why Do Good?

It's late here, so instead of a news item, I'm going to instead pose a question that came up in one of my classes today...

Today, I gave my students the assignment to pretend that they were the new military government of Niger, post 2010 coup, and to make a list of the five things they would do first as the new leaders of the country. Quite an argument followed, but what most interested me was not the group that was so democratic that they were taking votes within themselves on their top five policies. It was the dictatorship group. One group of students immediately became dictators, making the army into their own presidential army, selling Niger's uranium to Iran and putting the money in Swiss bank accounts, and putting the minister of propaganda in charge of brainwashing the citizens... and after they presented, I just had one question for them. Why?

Why go bad?

Why perpetuate bad leadership, of which the continent has already seen so much?

And they couldn't answer me.

While they are off tonight having a good think about themselves, and why this exercise brought out the worse in them, I sit here trying to figure out how best to teach ethics to my students. Because when it comes down to it, my school is meant to change Africa. And how can we change Africa for the better, if students finish a politics class without a solid moral compass? Won't we just be doing the same thing and expecting different results?

So my random thought for today is... why do good? What are the ethics behind being a politician or a political leader, and then deciding to do good? Doing bad is so easy, and the incentives are clear. So... why bother? Any philosophers out there able to help a teacher out?