A Govenerment run via the security services and Academics / Universities

[HiveSentinelApis]

Given politics as they are now, Would a country be improved or not if the main Govt was made up of the security services personal and various university's members filling different posts, overall would this be a better way to govern ?

Depends on whether they would be elected or who would appoint them if not.
One of the problems with elections is that after 2 years in office governments become reluctant to make unpopular decisions such as increasing taxes or privatising the NHS, whatever because they have half an eye on the next election.

thats the thing then as it becomes more a popularity contest, and given how many people study politics in full detail , what is popular may not be the best for the country over the long term etc

But if the security services - military? ran the UK to hen it would be a military dictatorship, no thanks.
As for university professors- no I think mps should be drawn from different jobs and professors from across the country.
One of the problems now is that politicians are out of touch ‘managerial elite’ class and go straight from University to politics- usually via a PPE degree from Oxford. If you had University staff in charge then it would be more entrenched.

I first read that as a Gove-enment. Imagine. That would put a happy smile on his little face!

Perhaps terms should be much longer. So many projects are kicked off and the government/PM is out before you can see any benefits or problems. I do think that people who make decisions should be qualified to make them though. For example, I don’t really want somebody who did PPE or with no experience making public health decisions.

Democracy also relies on an educated populace. At the moment narratives have too much power, if that makes sense. We should change the culture around voting, teach students to vote on facts as well as narrative. At the moment, I don’t think everybody is able to engage with manifestos and the data that has (hopefully) informed them.

Jesus, no! Academia is quite dysfunctional for a whole host of reasons. What is necessary is change to the U.K. political structure. However, change is incredibly difficult to achieve and is usually the result of a sudden critical event such as civil war or revolution.

We have a political system built on convention but there is basically little more than a gentleman’s agreement in place to ensure that is respected. However, there is virtually no political will to transform the U.K. constitution, parliaments or voting system and who would decide what that would look like? We need to move towards more consensus but the current system and how power is achieved really makes this unlikely. Accountability is fundamental to any functioning democracy and how would employing the security services, military or academics ensure this?

The support for Scottish independence is massive in the under 40s and more likely as time goes on. Irish unification I’m less sure about because of the financial implications for the Republic but you never know. This would be the best thing that could happen to England and Wales as it would force discussions on new political structures that could be less London centric and more representative for English regions.

Sure, just don't look up

Eh I work in academia and while there are alot of lovely caring people there is also a large problem of bullying and harassment. I know of someone being thrown against a wall by a Prof and all he got was a slap on the wrist. I have left a job due to bullying and know various people who have endured prolonged periods of harassment and bullying. The perpetrators are usually highly sucesfull profs so on paper the people you would want in this new system. I do not want people like that running the country.
Equally military dictatorships rarely end well for the civilians.

I agree political reform is necessary however I don't think your solution is the the ideal one.

I don't believe government should ever be exclusionary. Whatever its current shortcomings, limiting to two professions is going down a seriously dangerous road.

The security services only, the military would serve the security services rather than rule with them

I’m an academic. Some of my colleagues are the most venal, petty minded idiots. So YABU!

Shall we let the institutionally racist and demonstrably rapey Met Police run the country ? No. Let’s not. I’d rather have security forces doing security stuff.

I would like qualified / experienced people to run ministries though, operationally at least perhaps with an MP interfacing that to government policy.

Academia is a snakepit. MPs are probably nicer!

Oh and bin off Westminster.

Circular forum with electronic voting, situated in the middle of the UK, glass building for an atmosphere of transparency and openness.

No more ancient halls which look and smell like Eton.

Yabu, an academic and security service dictatorship sounds awful.

I work in academia. You do not want academics or university managers running anything. For different reasons, but both very valid.

Yeah, I know a lot of academics. I wouldn't want any of them running the country.

And I don't want to live in a military dictatorship either.

Who would appoint people to these roles in your scenario, OP? And if we're getting rid of voting, who would hold them to account and decide when someone needs to be replaced? And who would hold that person/body to account if they turned out to be incompetent or self serving?

I fully recognise the limitations of democracy. People frequently use their vote stupidly. However, I haven't yet seen anyone put forward a viable alternative. A benign dictatorship might sound like a potential alternative in theory, but how do you ensure that it stays benign in reality?

Personally, I think we would do better to stick with some form of democracy but there should be much better education in schools about how our democratic system functions, how the economy functions, how to critically evaluate what politicians are saying, how to recognise common manipulation techniques etc. There will always be some stupid voters, but we could certainly do more to ensure that the majority were better equipped to make informed judgements.

If you had seen our Senate in action, the last thing you would want is academics running the country.

Let's go one by one.

Academics - don't even do a great job of running universities, look at the awful treatment of kids who took exams the staff refused to mark, leaving them without degrees and unable to start their careers. Imagine that attitude with even bigger power; terrifying. Most in government meanwhile have degrees, education level isn't a determining factor in the way it might once have been.

For security services, see Putin - that's what you want? Move to Russia then.

You've described a sort of mix between a technocracy and a military junta. No it wouldn't be better I'm afraid.

Whilst rule by technical expert sounds appealling, handing power to such people and expecting them to exercise it with dispassionate objectivity relies heavy on them being extremely good people with no personality flaws or incredibly tough checks and balances that are likely to be incredibly disruptive themselves.

There is the old saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Let's remember that Vladimir Putin was an ex-security services officer.

So I'm a big fan of the old saying "Democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the others that have been tried".

If we want to improve our democracy in this country then we need to do the following:

1. improve our education system, educate more people better.
2. Strengthen our institutions and rules to improve our constitution and limit areas where our elected leaders can be influenced (lobbying and second job restrictions), consider maximum terms for parliament and/or mandatory retirement beyond a certain age.
3. Invest in more regular active mass participation in democracy - local referenda, etc. this gets more people engaged in the mechanisms of democracy and gives them a more tangible stake even when they have not voted for the party in power.
4. Change our voting system to be more equal such as introducing PR - this will lead to more representative parliaments that require bipartisan working.

We absolutely need reform in this country. Significant parliamentary majorities are won too easily and the fiasco in parliament this week is the latest incident that shows the weakness of our constitution which is simply a bunch of gentlemen's agreements and precedents and nothing more.

You want to create a police state? At least now the security services are answerable to someone. Put them in charge and that's out the window.

Tell me you’ve never worked in a university without telling me you’ve never worked in a university…

Imagine thinking that extending the kind of management you get in universities to governing the country. 🤯 And backing that up with the security services.

Did you draw this scenario from a cards against humanity box?

Academics don't even want to run their own departments. Trying to get anyone to do admin is an absolute nightmare. I speak as one.

Couldn't agree more.

Still want my politicians elected though even if other people do seem to make ridiculous decisions.