Study finds smart politicians

The following sentence hit me when I ran across it recently in an academic paper: “Visibly inept leaders are elected around the world.” You think? Who came to my mind was you-know-who, the Tweeter-in-chief.

I do understand some people think the first six Trump weeks have been a triumph, while others believe it will all get better, there being nowhere else to go but up. But “visibly inept” wouldn’t be far from most people’s evaluation. Also audibly inept, socially inept, tweetily inept — you choose the adverb.

Of course, many people think the new president is just an extreme version of the generic problem that modern politics is so bad because it is over-populated by folks who are far from the best and brightest in their society.

There’s even an economic principle — adverse selection — that predicts as much: Talented people with great alternatives should not be attracted to low-paying, soul-destroying politics.

As a result, you mainly get candidates for whom political office would be the very best job they could ever hope to achieve, who obviously are not the people you want serving.

That’s why the study the quote comes from is so interesting.

Titled “Who becomes a politician?” and published by the Boston-based National Bureau of Economic Research, it tries to answer that very question: What kinds of people become politicians?

Its very surprising answer is that the best kind of people do, at least when measured by cognitive ability, occupational and income alternatives and leadership skills.