Many (most?) politicians were traditionally (at least partly) motivated by public service, so we perhaps should consider how to reinvigorate and reinforce that.
One possibility might be to specifically improve pathways into politics from sectors that still have high levels of public service motivation - eg. the civil service, judiciary, NGOs, civil infrastructure, education.
There are likely plenty of other approaches to help balance out the pure power-seekers too, so let's work out what they are and follow as many as possible rather than encouraging fatalism.
> Many (most?) politicians were traditionally (at least partly) motivated by public service
At the entry level of politics, I feel this is actually true. And having known friends and acquaintances who have gone into low/entry level political offices I know they have been clearly motivated by trying to make things better for the common citizen.
So where does it go wrong?
To move up the ladder you can only really do it (with very few exceptions) by having full support of one or the other party. And to gain that support you can only do it by fully aligning with the party sponsors and contributors and their selfish interests. If you're not seen as a party team player who votes in block with everyone else, you won't have the support you need to gain higher offices. So either you burn out and leave (as all my friends have) or you stay at low level political positions where you can do some good, but very little influence.
That's why all the top-level politicians are so clearly thoroughly extremely corrupt, because you couldn't possibly get to that level any other way.
N_Lens · · focus · HN ↗
We are forever doomed to be ruled by those worse than us, for the simple reason that reasonable people don't seek power.
roryirvine · · focus · HN ↗
One possibility might be to specifically improve pathways into politics from sectors that still have high levels of public service motivation - eg. the civil service, judiciary, NGOs, civil infrastructure, education.
There are likely plenty of other approaches to help balance out the pure power-seekers too, so let's work out what they are and follow as many as possible rather than encouraging fatalism.
jjav · · focus · HN ↗
At the entry level of politics, I feel this is actually true. And having known friends and acquaintances who have gone into low/entry level political offices I know they have been clearly motivated by trying to make things better for the common citizen.
So where does it go wrong?
To move up the ladder you can only really do it (with very few exceptions) by having full support of one or the other party. And to gain that support you can only do it by fully aligning with the party sponsors and contributors and their selfish interests. If you're not seen as a party team player who votes in block with everyone else, you won't have the support you need to gain higher offices. So either you burn out and leave (as all my friends have) or you stay at low level political positions where you can do some good, but very little influence.
That's why all the top-level politicians are so clearly thoroughly extremely corrupt, because you couldn't possibly get to that level any other way.