* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Rachel Guttman Launches Entertainment Law Firm Gutt Law, PLLC [Exclusive] – MusicRow.com

    Rachel Guttman Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Law Firm: Gutt Law, PLLC!

    HYBE Cashes In: Offloads Final Stake in K-Pop Rival SM Entertainment for $177 Million!

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Receives Expected Nasdaq Notice Regarding Delayed Quarterly Report – Business Wire

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed Quarterly Report

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Aziz Ansari made Keanu Reeves Indian food so he wouldn’t feel ‘freaked out’ directing him in Good Fortune (exclusive) – Entertainment Weekly

    Aziz Ansari Whips Up Indian Cuisine for Keanu Reeves to Ease Directing Jitters in Good Fortune

    Cassie Ventura welcomes third child – crossroadstoday.com

    Cassie Ventura Joyfully Welcomes Her Third Child!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism – International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – ICCT

    Unplugged: The Surge of Anti-Technology Extremism

    Finland to head EU’s quantum defense technology project – Latest news from Azerbaijan

    Finland Takes the Lead in Pioneering EU’s Quantum Defense Technology Initiative!

    i3D Robotics Unveils Breakthrough Glass Defect Detection Technology – USGlass Magazine

    Revolutionary Glass Defect Detection Technology Unveiled by i3D Robotics!

    4Liberty Announces Collaboration with Itron to Drive Innovation in Utility Technology Adoption and Optimization – FinancialContent

    4Liberty Partners with Itron to Revolutionize Utility Technology and Boost Innovation

    Q1 2025 Quantum Technology Investment: What’s Driving the Surge in Quantum Investment? – The Quantum Insider

    Unleashing the Future: Exploring the Surge in Quantum Technology Investments for Q1 2025

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Rachel Guttman Launches Entertainment Law Firm Gutt Law, PLLC [Exclusive] – MusicRow.com

    Rachel Guttman Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Law Firm: Gutt Law, PLLC!

    HYBE Cashes In: Offloads Final Stake in K-Pop Rival SM Entertainment for $177 Million!

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Receives Expected Nasdaq Notice Regarding Delayed Quarterly Report – Business Wire

    Allied Gaming & Entertainment Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed Quarterly Report

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Weekly Entertainment Report May 29-June 1: Where to find lively arts, music, and shows – Manchester Ink Link

    Aziz Ansari made Keanu Reeves Indian food so he wouldn’t feel ‘freaked out’ directing him in Good Fortune (exclusive) – Entertainment Weekly

    Aziz Ansari Whips Up Indian Cuisine for Keanu Reeves to Ease Directing Jitters in Good Fortune

    Cassie Ventura welcomes third child – crossroadstoday.com

    Cassie Ventura Joyfully Welcomes Her Third Child!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism – International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – ICCT

    Unplugged: The Surge of Anti-Technology Extremism

    Finland to head EU’s quantum defense technology project – Latest news from Azerbaijan

    Finland Takes the Lead in Pioneering EU’s Quantum Defense Technology Initiative!

    i3D Robotics Unveils Breakthrough Glass Defect Detection Technology – USGlass Magazine

    Revolutionary Glass Defect Detection Technology Unveiled by i3D Robotics!

    4Liberty Announces Collaboration with Itron to Drive Innovation in Utility Technology Adoption and Optimization – FinancialContent

    4Liberty Partners with Itron to Revolutionize Utility Technology and Boost Innovation

    Q1 2025 Quantum Technology Investment: What’s Driving the Surge in Quantum Investment? – The Quantum Insider

    Unleashing the Future: Exploring the Surge in Quantum Technology Investments for Q1 2025

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    MIT Team Releases Tempting Report on Electric Aircraft Technology – AVweb

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Study of key characteristics of UK politicians reveals ‘ambition, narcissism, genuine idealism’ among common traits

July 8, 2024
in Science
Study of key characteristics of UK politicians reveals ‘ambition, narcissism, genuine idealism’ among common traits
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

politicians

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In a new study of politicians’ personalities, humor, charm and raw courage are listed among the most important character traits for successful leaders.

Bill Jones, Honorary Professor of Political Studies at Liverpool Hope University, has combed through biographies and interviewed key political figures to understand the kind of people who enter politics, and strengths and frailties of those who occupy positions of power.

Jones explains, “Why do aspiring politicians embark on such a perilous journey, involving hugely long hours, no real job security and, on occasions, high degrees of self-abasement, just to have the chance of making it to the first rung of the ladder? What kind of person, then, wants to become a professional politician?”

The appeal of politics

In ‘Just Like Us’?: The Politics of Ministerial Promotion in UK Government, Jones argues that choosing a career in politics is unlike choosing another profession.

He explains, “Political activity is essentially about the winning and retaining of power to change the way other people live their lives. Some would say—and this is the dangerous bit given the vagaries of human nature—it is also about the acquisition of power for its own sake.”

Jones describes politicians as a “strange, special people” among which many of whom “appear to be a near narcissistic interest in themselves.” But he also explains that most politicians he has studied do not enter politics “because they are venal, egotistical or ruthlessly selfish” but instead because “they genuinely believe they can ‘make a difference’ and fulfill an idealistic sense of service to the local or national community.

“So success in politics seems to be an admixture of driving ambition, narcissism, genuine idealism with, perhaps, a dash of daring and necessary ruthlessness,” he remarks.

Characteristics of a politician

Jones studied biographies of former Prime Ministers, MPs and Speakers, including Harold Wilson, Norman Tebbit, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, to analyze consistent traits.

Despite their different motivations, there are some “inherent skills” which Jones suggests are important for political success.

Among these he lists charm, optimism, academic ability, memory skills and good decision-making skills.

He also stresses the importance of humor, “We forgive people who make us laugh a great deal and it might be argued that Boris Johnson based his political style to a large extent on his ability to amuse voters: in amusing them he avoided making politics as deadly boring as a majority seem to think it is.”

He suggests a strong constitution is an “oft- forgotten requisite key quality” for those looking for leadership positions in government, as you need “an extremely robust constitution and willingness to work long days stretching into the night.’

“I leave until last the most important quality of all—mastery of the spoken word—because without a high level of verbal skills, politics in the UK can never provide any kind of career for its ambitious participants,” he explains. “Since 1945, all our PMs have owned a selection of the requisite key skills but the major one still has to be speaking skills. Some ministers have proved lackluster verbally, their periods in power proving short.”

Jones also credits particularly women and working-class MPs with having courage:

“It also has to be said that female MPs have to survive and try to prosper in a Commons culture that is more male based than receptive to females. Finally, MPs recruited from working-class backgrounds also find the Commons intimidating given the large percentage of privately educated MPs on the Conservative side plus the domination of those educated at Oxbridge and other universities.”

Ultimately, Jones points out that although politicians “might resemble ‘us’ in many ways (…) in certain important ways they are very different.”

“They often seem to be addicted to or infected by a ‘politics bug,’ which drives them to compete against fellow addicts for the limited places available at the very top of the nation’s political elite,” he explains.

Limited selection pool

As well as determining the type of person who may become a politician, Jones also unpicks the various paths to becoming a minister—and how this can lead to a limited talent pool at the top.

With various paths to becoming a minister, the process can appear mysterious, but Jones maps the elements: the operation of the whips offices which inform the PM on which MPs are promotable; regular reshuffles which sift out poorly performing ministers, promote the good ones, and bring in fresh blood from the backbenches; and the role of the media which is the means whereby MPs communicate with voters and catch the eye of the party leadership.

Because of this varied path to the top, Jones points out that British ministers are often ill-informed on the areas for which they are responsible. UK ministers are not promoted on their technical expertise, and also spend an average of 18 months to two years in post before being moved to another role.

“It seems weird to those of us outside looking in on the political world to discover there is no real preparation for the job of minister in a department, despite it possibly handling a budget of billions of taxpayers’ money and affecting the daily lives of everyone,” he explains.

“In business, a new recruit spends years at lower grades acquiring knowledge of the company before being promoted to a level of substantial responsibility,” he continues.

“By comparison, a junior minister is often thrown into the deep end, with huge responsibilities, with no knowledge or relevant skills within an organization employing hundreds and serving millions.”

Jones remarks that any leaders looking to promote colleagues into a ministerial role are faced with “distinctly finite” resources, explaining that depending on the size of its majority a government might have a couple of hundred MPs to put in charge of Whitehall departments and fill the 20 or more Cabinet posts.

“In fact, there is a good case for saying our constitution has a serious flaw—something reformers have tended to neglect perhaps—and that thought ought to be given to removing the (quixotically British) restraint upon recruitment imposed by the requirement that ministers also be members of the legislature,” he explains.

“Given the widely accepted critique of our ministerial recruitment pool as too shallow and lacking in specialized expertise, something radical is required to attract those people of real ability into the insecure and relatively poorly paid profession.”

At the conclusion of the book, Jones offers some measures to improve ministerial quality, including removing the need for parliamentary membership qualification for ministerial office and ending leadership elections by party members, as well as longer periods of office.

More information:
Bill Jones, ‘Just Like Us’?: The Politics of Ministerial Promotion in UK Government, (2024). DOI: 10.4324/9781003405085

Citation:
Study of key characteristics of UK politicians reveals ‘ambition, narcissism, genuine idealism’ among common traits (2024, July 7)
retrieved 7 July 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-key-characteristics-uk-politicians-reveals.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Phys.org – https://phys.org/news/2024-07-key-characteristics-uk-politicians-reveals.html

Tags: characteristicssciencestudy
Previous Post

How to ensure higher-density housing developments still have enough space for residents’ recreation needs

Next Post

IND vs ZIM 2nd T20I Dream11 Team Prediction, Match Preview, Fantasy Cricket Hints: Captain, Probable Playing 11s, Team News; Injury Updates For Today’s India vs Zimbabwe, Harare, 4:30 PM IST, July 7

Revolutionary Approach to Assessing the Ecological Impact of Offshore Activities

May 31, 2025
OpenAI’s ‘smartest’ AI model was explicitly told to shut down — and it refused – Live Science

OpenAI’s ‘Smartest’ AI Model Defies Shutdown Command!

May 31, 2025
Alarmed by Trump Cuts, Scientists Are Talking Science. For 100 Hours. – The New York Times

Scientists Unite for 100 Hours of Dialogue in Response to Trump’s Budget Cuts

May 31, 2025
The big ‘Cheese’: Apple TV+ series delivers a surrealist family comedy – Albuquerque Journal

The big ‘Cheese’: Apple TV+ series delivers a surrealist family comedy – Albuquerque Journal

May 31, 2025
International Research Team Builds World’s Most Efficient Organic Solar Cell – SciTechDaily

Revolutionary Breakthrough: Scientists Create the Most Efficient Organic Solar Cell Yet!

May 31, 2025
JPMorgan’s Dimon discusses dangers from ‘tectonic shifts’ in geopolitics, the global economy (JPM:NYSE) – Seeking Alpha

Dimon Warns of Geopolitical ‘Tectonic Shifts’ Impacting the Global Economy

May 31, 2025
Khruangbin takes Boise on a hypnotic journey – Idaho Press

Khruangbin Transports Boise into a Mesmerizing Musical Odyssey

May 31, 2025
VSee Health, Inc. Receives Nasdaq Notice on Delayed Form 10-Q Filing – Business Wire

VSee Health Faces Nasdaq Notice Over Delayed 10-Q Filing: What It Means for the Future

May 31, 2025
A 30 Year Dungeons and Dragons Game Gets Upended By Politics – StoryCorps

How Politics Turned a 30-Year Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Upside Down

May 31, 2025
Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism – International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – ICCT

Unplugged: The Surge of Anti-Technology Extremism

May 31, 2025

Categories

Archives

May 2025
MTWTFSS
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
« Apr    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (653)
  • Economy (667)
  • Entertainment (21,573)
  • General (15,251)
  • Health (9,709)
  • Lifestyle (669)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (669)
  • Politics (675)
  • Science (15,889)
  • Sports (21,171)
  • Technology (15,654)
  • World (655)

Recent News

Revolutionary Approach to Assessing the Ecological Impact of Offshore Activities

May 31, 2025
OpenAI’s ‘smartest’ AI model was explicitly told to shut down — and it refused – Live Science

OpenAI’s ‘Smartest’ AI Model Defies Shutdown Command!

May 31, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version