Sunday, October 2, 2011

A quick technocratic temperature check of the world's subregional administrators

The functional chief administrator of the world's respective subregions:

-China & East Asia: President Hu Jintao of China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao

Technocratic bonafides quote: "Hu possesses a low-key and reserved leadership style, and is reportedly a firm believer in consensus-based rule.[4] These traits have made Hu a rather bland figure in the public eye, embodying the focus in Chinese politics on technocratic competence rather than personality"

-India & South Asia: Prime Minister Singh of India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmohan_Singh

Technocratic bonafides quote: "He attended Panjab University, Chandigarh, then in Hoshiarpur,[6][7][8][9] Punjab, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively, standing first throughout his academic career. He went on to read for the Economics Tripos at Cambridge as a member of St John's College. He won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in 1955 and 1957. He was also one of the few recipients of the Wrenbury scholarship. In 1962, Singh completed his studies from the University of Oxford where he was a member of Nuffield College. The title of his doctoral thesis was "India’s export performance, 1951–1960, export prospects and policy implications" and his thesis supervisor was Dr. I.M.D. Little."

-EU & Former Soviet Europe: Chancellor Merkel of Germany

Awesome technocratic credentials

"Merkel was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritzbastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Such an initiative was unprecedented in the GDR of that period, and initially resisted by the University of Leipzig. However, with backing of the local leadership of the SED party, the project was allowed to proceed.[10] Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. She learned to speak Russian fluently, and earned a statewide prize for her proficiency.[citation needed] After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry,[11] she worked as a researcher."

-USA & Anglosphere: President Obama of the United States

Decent technocratic credentials, not as quanty as I'd like

-Africa: President Zuma of South Africa

Terrible technocratic credentials

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Zuma

-Middle East and North Africa: Prime Minister Sharaf of Egypt

Outstanding technocratic credentials:

"After receiving his B.Sc. in civil engineering from Cairo University in 1975, he went to Purdue University where he continued his studies, receiving his M.Sc. Engg in 1980 and his Ph.D. in 1984."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essam_Sharaf

-Latin America and the Carribean: President Rousseff of Brazil

Weak technocratic credentials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff

Indonesia and the Pacific Islands

Below Mediocre technocratic credentials President Yudhoyono:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susilo_Bambang_Yudhoyono

"Whilst at Seskoad, Yudhoyono also took the opportunity to further his own military education. He went to the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While in the United States, he took the opportunity to obtain an MA degree in business management from Webster University in 1991."

4 comments:

  1. Surprised at some of the appearances here when the UK, France, Japan and Russia were absent. Though Indonesia is supposed to be the most populous muslim country in the world, which we'd forget if we didn't read it so often.

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  2. Yes, I don't think you can argue that Indonesia is the regional hegemon. South-east Asia (and Australia!) is more like an extension of East Asia in that regard - China is the big power, at least economically.

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  3. I didn't post this thinking that the world had neat subregional administrators. This is more like a toy model, I'm looking at the gap between my tidy technocratic/earthy aesthetic of of what the world should look like and how it actually looks, but I'm not spending a lot of time or energy fleshing it out in my post.

    Hopefully Anonymous

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  4. I have seen an analysis that democracy is not necessarily good for GDP
    http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/10/democracy_dicta.html
    and that higher education of leaders is good for GDP

    Is there one saying technocracy is good for GDP?

    BTW i am coming round tot he view that IQ is a measure of pathogens in a society. And that IQ is a good measure of corruption http://www.wiwi.uni-konstanz.de/workingpaperseries/WP_37-Potrafke-11.pdf and autocracy http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/31/does-disease-cause-autocracy

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