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The PRC is one ongoing study. The leaders of four of China's provinces are former aerospace engineers. The minister of education, as one might expect, is a comp

by kleton 5y ago

The PRC is one ongoing study. The leaders of four of China's provinces are former aerospace engineers. The minister of education, as one might expect, is a computer scientist.

cutemonster 5y ago
The PRC and the Soviet Union -- it'd be interesting with democratic countries too. But what if, in democratic countries, it's more important to be good at making an impression (being a career politician), to win more votes
- necovek 5y ago
  That's equally important for non-politicians: only the most capable will get their lack of social skills ignored, and only sometimes. Engineer-turning-politicians in non-democracies also do not need to make an impression on a wider public, but just on a restricted set of decision makers (or political mentors). USA has had its own share of non-politician politicians (think Schwarzenegger and Trump, to name the few most prominent ones). And I am sure you can find many politicians throughout Europe who have an engineering background, it's just never highlighted. In the USA, it's also that business accomplishments are valued more than problem solving skills, and in politics, you don't get the same freedom as in business: eg. late Steve Jobs would probably have an easy job of getting elected, but what would he have done afterwards? His mode of operation would not translate to democratic governance (even though, arguably, Trump attempted a similar style with less charisma), IMO. Maybe Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg could run for the office? I'd honestly wonder what would the polls say about them (Zuckerberg is maybe not going to do so well with all the privacy-related negatives, but I wonder how much would people care about net worth vs that). But again, these are top-of-the-line businessmen, not top-of-the-line engineers, even if they've got engineering background.
oh_sigh 5y ago
Wouldn't it only be a technocracy if the leader of the space program or airforce or whatever was an aerospace engineer? Not just an engineer doing some standard government job like governor or mayor.
- kleton 5y ago
  Chen Qiufa (electrical engineering) ran CNSA from 2010-2013, then became leader of Lioaning province. His successor at CNSA, Ma Xingrui (PhD mechanical engineering) ran CNSA for a bit in 2013 before being tapped as leader of Guangdong province. His successor, Xu_Dazhe (also started as IC engineer), ran CNSA from 2013-2016, before becoming leader of Hunan province. Same story: Tang Dengjie, Fujian province, now national minister. Current CNSA head Zhang Kejian, physics, going by the pattern, he will "graduate" to some other province or national ministry in a year or two.

by kleton 5y ago

The PRC is one ongoing study. The leaders of four of China's provinces are former aerospace engineers. The minister of education, as one might expect, is a computer scientist.

cutemonster 5y ago

The PRC and the Soviet Union -- it'd be interesting with democratic countries too. But what if, in democratic countries, it's more important to be good at making an impression (being a career politician), to win more votes

necovek 5y ago
That's equally important for non-politicians: only the most capable will get their lack of social skills ignored, and only sometimes. Engineer-turning-politicians in non-democracies also do not need to make an impression on a wider public, but just on a restricted set of decision makers (or political mentors). USA has had its own share of non-politician politicians (think Schwarzenegger and Trump, to name the few most prominent ones). And I am sure you can find many politicians throughout Europe who have an engineering background, it's just never highlighted. In the USA, it's also that business accomplishments are valued more than problem solving skills, and in politics, you don't get the same freedom as in business: eg. late Steve Jobs would probably have an easy job of getting elected, but what would he have done afterwards? His mode of operation would not translate to democratic governance (even though, arguably, Trump attempted a similar style with less charisma), IMO. Maybe Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg could run for the office? I'd honestly wonder what would the polls say about them (Zuckerberg is maybe not going to do so well with all the privacy-related negatives, but I wonder how much would people care about net worth vs that). But again, these are top-of-the-line businessmen, not top-of-the-line engineers, even if they've got engineering background.

oh_sigh 5y ago

Wouldn't it only be a technocracy if the leader of the space program or airforce or whatever was an aerospace engineer? Not just an engineer doing some standard government job like governor or mayor.

kleton 5y ago
Chen Qiufa (electrical engineering) ran CNSA from 2010-2013, then became leader of Lioaning province. His successor at CNSA, Ma Xingrui (PhD mechanical engineering) ran CNSA for a bit in 2013 before being tapped as leader of Guangdong province. His successor, Xu_Dazhe (also started as IC engineer), ran CNSA from 2013-2016, before becoming leader of Hunan province. Same story: Tang Dengjie, Fujian province, now national minister. Current CNSA head Zhang Kejian, physics, going by the pattern, he will "graduate" to some other province or national ministry in a year or two.