The Leadership Myth The Leadership Myth

Arnold Kling in a TCS article: The Leadership Myth suggests that mediocre representatives are good. They are unlikely to screw things up by trying to be too smart.

Democracy does not lead to particularly good choices. Most successful institutions in society are not democratic.

For me, the value of democracy is that it provides a check on government officials. The fact that leaders can be tossed out by popular vote helps to limit their abuse of power. Democracy gives the people the power to toss out the bums.

We have to expect mediocrity from political leaders. They are selected by a very unreliable process. In general, I try to avoid contact with narcissists who spend their time pleading for money. Those are hardly the intellectual and emotional characteristics that make someone admirable, yet they are the traits of people who go into politics.