IQ and psychometric testing...

That would make the election process even more of joke than it is now. Why not just put every willing citizen into such a test and pick the one who scores the highest?

IQ test and psychometric testing are a load of old bollocks and should never be used to assess anyone for anything. I would happily throw both these charlatans on the dung heap of pseudo-scientific bullsh*t along with astrology, alchemy and philosophy. The OT and poll is based upon the premise that Trump and Clinton (or Blair and Thatcher come to that) would fail one or other (or both) of these assessment tests, and I'm not so sure that they would.

probs

Anyone with a PPE degree should automatically be disqualified from holding a governmental post. Hell, I'm not sure I'd want anyone with that qualification in any position of responsibility or having anything to to with handling money (so that includes anything in retail, even flipping burgers in Micky-Ds). The world always needs bog-cleaners, though even that may be too good for such wastrels.

Perhaps I should have said, anyone with a Philosophy, Politics or Economics degree, or combinations thereof as I don't see any of them as being ideal qualifications for running a country... but especially anyone who thought a PPE degree was the best meal-ticket for a career in politics and have never had a "proper job".

many of those who are elected as priminister in Norway either has economic degress or law, very few with higher then five years of completed education ( master) or even three year (bachelor), Gro Harlem who were our priminister in the 90s had a PhD in medicine i think. Our current pope has a master degree in chemistry... more qulified then current president of US accademicly.

Any person who has even been the star of a reality TV show should be automatically disqualified. 

dr wu23 wrote: The T wrote: Any person who believes Jesus rode a dinosaur should be automatically disqualified.  Over 40% of people couldn't be candidates then.  The sad thing is that there are plenty of people who believe such religious nonsense.

I guess my utter contempt for philosophers (and by inference philosophy) is well known here. Just as the academic study of history is an adequate qualification for observing and commenting upon past historical events, but a piss-poor one for creating new historical events, the study of philosophy, which I'm sure it is enormous fun, is an adequate qualification for observing and commenting on the activities of politicians and governments but it is wholly inadequate for being one. I regard the academic study of politics and/or economics in exactly the same way. Terrific if you want to be a journalist but of no value if you want to run a country. [If anyone thinks that they'd like to be governed by an economist probably hasn't worked for company run by an accountant.]

Logan wrote: EDIT: I think law and engineering are two of the best academic backgrounds for office.

Not sure. Margaret Hilda Thatcher was a Chemist (afaik, the closest we ever got to having an engineer as PM), Theresa Mary May has a BA in Geography (so I presume she can name the other 27 countries of the EU at least) and the last lawyer to be PM was Anthony Charles Lynton Blair... so not the greatest track record there then.

There is an adage that engineers don't make good managers because they are more interested in engineering than they are in management which makes them too goal-driven, and that is partly true. As an ex-engineering manager I was a "player-manager" and have been told by those who worked for me that I did okay as a manager even though I actually didn't like managing people. If asked to choose a CEO from list of candidates that included an engineer, an accountant and a salesman I'd probably pick the salesman first, then the engineer.

Edited by Dean - April 05 2017 at 02:19

Ok, ok...so there's no winning formula for the perfect politico.

Maybe the best bet is merely for a good diplomat to surround him or herself with good accountants, lawyers, engineers and military strategists and then hope for the best.