Lesser of two evils principle

The lesser of two evils principle (or lesser evil principle, lesser-evilism) is the principle that when faced with selecting from two immoral options, the one which is least immoral should be chosen.

The lesser of two evils principle is one of the central tenets of realpolitik. During the Cold War era, a "lesser evil" pragmatic foreign policy strategy was used by the United States and, to a lesser extent, several other countries. It underlies the support given by the United States to dictators of Third World nations if they were regarded as anti-Communist, and it was closely related to the Kirkpatrick Doctrine of Jeane Kirkpatrick.

The lesser of two evils principle is often discussed as a rationale for tactical voting, especially under voting systems such as first-past-the-post which favor a two-party system. Voters well to the left or right of the mainstream parties may choose to vote for one of them anyway, instead of a fringe party, on the lesser evil principle.

An early example of the lesser of two evils principle in politics was the slogan "Better the turban than the mitre", used by Orthodox Christians in the Balkans during the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Conquest by Western Roman Catholic powers (the mitre) would likely mean forcible conversion to the Catholic faith, while conquest by the Muslim Ottoman Empire (the turban) would mean second-class citizenship but would at least allow Orthodox Christians to retain their current religion. In a similar manner, the Protestant Dutch resistance against Spanish rule in the 16th century used the slogan Liever Turks dan Paaps (better a Turk than a Papist).

...
Wikipedia