Bob King

A question crossed my mind this morning. We take training extremely seriously when mistakes have enormous consequences. We train: • Surgeons • Pilots • Engineers • Military Officers • Judges Then consider one of the most complicated jobs imaginable: Running a country. A national leader suddenly has to make judgments involving: • Economics • Geopolitics • Technology • Energy • Defence • Healthcare • Institutions • Crisis Management Democracy is extraordinarily good at answering one essential question: Who has the legitimacy to govern? But that doesn't automatically answer another: Who has been prepared to govern well? Campaigning and governing require overlapping skills. But they aren't the same skill. So here's the question I've been wrestling with: Could democracies preserve open elections and democratic accountability...while taking the preparation of future leaders far more seriously? Imagine future national leaders spending years learning: • Economics • Systems Thinking • History • Science • Negotiation • Ethics • Crisis Decision-Making Democracy solved the problem of who gets to choose our leaders. Maybe the next challenge is improving how we prepare the people we choose.