Do politics really have to be applied ethics?

A common view seems to be that politics are applied ethics. But given that people can have rather different views, is this idea really a good one?

Immanuel Kant and John Rawls instead wanted society to be a framework in which different conceptions of the good could co-exist, rather than one group forcing their views on everyone else. Think of the Rawlsian overlapping consensus.

What do you think of this? Also, are there other political philosophers except Rawls and Kant who hold this view of politics?