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China’s leadership is mostly engineers, and in the US we have lawyers. Seems to be working well for China.
by paulsutter 9y ago
China’s leadership is mostly engineers, and in the US we have lawyers. Seems to be working well for China.
- selimthegrim 9y agoHow'd it work out for the Soviet Union?
- clhodapp 9y agoWere Soviet leaders mostly engineers?
- MagnumOpus 9y agoVery mixed. Stalin had a liberal arts education in the broadest sense. Krushchev was a metal worker, Brezhnev was an engineer (metallurgy), Gorbachev was a lawyer. Andropov studied marine engineering but was really only at the university to become a professional political lifer and switched to studying politics and history after the war...
- gaius 9y agoYou should read the book Soviet Science Wars, it's fascinating. The Soviets almost didn't get nukes because Lenin disagreed with physics on the nature of atoms...
- acqq 9y agoSome stats for the U.S: http://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_US_congress_members_are_lawyers http://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_US_congress_memb... "lawyers comprise the biggest voting block of one type, making up 43% of Congress. Sixty percent of the U.S. Senate is lawyers."
- regulation_d 9y agoIn general, I think it makes sense for a large percentage of the people making laws to be familiar with how laws work.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- maxxxxx 9y agoIt totally doesn't make sense. When I look at my company lawyers are rarely the ones that come up with new strategies or anything innovative. They implement what others tell them to do. That's a valuable thing but I don't think being a lawyer is a good qualification for leadership. I would argue you can see this in Congress where they seem to be more interested in fighting than actually delivering something.
- regulation_d 9y agoI'm certainly not suggesting all leaders should be lawyers, just that a fair number of the ones making laws should be. The US legal system is complex. Every time my very business-minded senator opens his mouth, there's a real good chance that he will say something dumb about the way the legal system works. Also, I'm generally not looking for laws that are innovative. Companies are suppose to innovate and risk a lot to do so. But if a company goes bankrupt, it's rarely a big deal. Governments don't have that level of flexibility. They need good, stable policy, from people who are good at seeing both sides of whatever argument is in play. You know what kind of people are good at doing that? Lawyers.
- maxxxxx 9y agoEach member of Congress has a substantial number of lawyers behind them to write the actual laws. That's necessary. But the direction should come from people from all walks of life, not just lawyers. I think the real problem may be that Congress creates laws by lawyers for lawyers.
- icebraining 9y agoFun fact: the current Secretary-General of the UN is an EE graduate, who taught Systems Theory and Telecommunication Signals before becoming a politician.
- saryant 9y agoRex Tillerson has a degree in civil engineering. Seems like perhaps that's not a panacea. (His predecessor at Exxon has a PhD in chemical engineering)