Quality

I am not the only one who is doubting the quality of our political "representatives".

Patrick Stouthuysen, political scientist at the VUB in Brussels has some interesting lines :

1. Belgium is small. Statistically there are less super talented politicians in a population of ten million than in a population of fifty million ;

2. If you can put all the top politicians in a single government, the probability that you will have the best ones are better than when you have to distribute them over five or six governments, as is the case in Belgium.

3. When you have but one or two parties, chances are that the leaders of those parties will have a lot to offer. When, as is the case in Belgium, you have six or more parties in Flanders, and another six or more in Wallonia, that becomes a lot less obvious.

4. When politicians are respected, chances are the best talents will be attracted into that field. When that is not the case, ...

Stouthuysen draws the tentative conclusion that in the possible "republic of flanders" (no capitals for me) those lines can only be further accentuated. Almost everyone then will be able to claim the status of "top politician". And he ends with a deeply significant line which I cannot translate : "Dan wordt de Dorpsstraat de Wetstraat".

See : http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=R11JP5V4.