People of Dubious Character Are More Likely To Enter Public Service (economist.com)
- Reference: 0180517877
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/05/1452249/people-of-dubious-character-are-more-likely-to-enter-public-service
- Source link: https://www.economist.com/china/2025/12/30/people-of-dubious-character-are-more-likely-to-enter-public-service
John Liu and co-authors analyzed 6 million dissertations from CNKI, a Chinese academic repository, and cross-referenced them against public records of civil-service exam-takers to identify 120,000 civil servants and their academic work. Those who entered the public sector had plagiarism scores 15.6% above average. Customs and tax officials fared worst -- their scores ran 25% and 26% higher than private-sector peers respectively. Within the civil service, those who plagiarized more were promoted 9% faster during the first five years of their careers. The researchers validated their plagiarism metric through an experiment involving 443 job applicants who were asked to roll dice for rewards without monitoring. Those who had plagiarized more also reported improbably high rolls.
[1] https://www.economist.com/china/2025/12/30/people-of-dubious-character-are-more-likely-to-enter-public-service
Frank Herbert pointed this out WAY back in 1965 (Score:5, Insightful)
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. It also attracts malicious people because with a badge or the like they can mistreat others without punishment.
Fuck "Eat the Rich" (Score:3)
Not all "rich" people got rich by cheating.
But when people who work hard all their lives, and achieve modest, barely-there success see people who skate and fake-it-'til-they-make-it raking in dough hand over fist, and holding positions of power... ...it makes even the most saintly of law-abiding citizens bite their tongue and grin n' bear it, instead of skinning the motherfuckers alive in the town square.
I hope this sentiment plays a large role in our next election. Or our next civil war, whichever comes first.
Re:Fuck "Eat the Rich" (Score:5, Interesting)
Adjacent to that is this article: [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0... [nytimes.com]
From the article:
The study found that the Supreme Court has become deeply polarized in cases pitting the rich against the poor, with Republican appointees far more likely than Democratic ones to side with the wealthy. That is starkly different from the middle of the last century, when appointees of the two parties were statistically indistinguishable on this measure.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/us/politics/supreme-court-study-rich-poor.html
Re: (Score:2)
And here's why that study was meaningless - "We are not going to consider the impact of the principle being decided. Rather, we just want to know who got the money in the case in question." That is, they ignore the single most important factor and focus only on the least relevant - the private fiscal implications of the ruling.
There may be something of interest in the findings, but in regards to the nature of cases being heard, not the relative finances of the claimants.
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"Not all "rich" people got rich by cheating."
Because "cheating" is the wrong metric. All "rich" people "got rich" by exploiting, or by inheriting wealth obtained through exploitation.
Re: (Score:2)
Who said every great fortune is based on a great crime?
However, I actually think there are (at least) two ways to get rich. Yes, crime, but also major luck. Someone had to win the lottery, even if it is just the lottery of being born in a rich family.
New problem is that in recent years it has become increasingly popular to "fix" the crime (and post facto legitimize the fortune) by bribing the cheapest politicians to revise the laws to legalize the crime. Not completely new, but much more brazen about it tha
Re: (Score:2)
Not a great fortune. But large enough that I still suspect crime at the corporate level... Care to offer any details about what your company did to pay the CTO so well? Also curious why you were in such a hurry to retire.
(Not that I should complain. As things turned out, I certainly could have worked for another 10 years, but I was actually surprised by how smoothly I was able to shift my lifestyle. Work was the center for so many years...)
Is being a president a "public service" ? (Score:1)
This is what has come to my mind:
Is being a president a "public service" ? What about Secretary of War? Attorney General? FBI chief?
Re:Is being a president a "public service" ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose congressmen and senators who are making 175K and are suddenly worth tens of millions is okay to you?
Re: (Score:2)
Not "a" public service, that's things like law enforcement and mail delivery. "Public service" means "working for government", so while in office Trump is a public servant, but neither he nor Hegseth are career public servants. Career public servants are just bureaucrats. Anyone from the person at the desk at your DMV to Anthony Fauci.
China's government is famously corrupt, so it's no surprise that it attracts the already corrupt.
Re: (Score:2)
"China's government is famously corrupt, so it's no surprise that it attracts the already corrupt"
I don't disagree but the USA's often seems to be almost as bad
No political class in our sense in China (Score:2)
The only ones in public service are those who've climbed up the ranks of the government.
Re: (Score:1)
"Is being a president a "public service" ?"
The GOP doesn't even consider the POTUS. or rather Trump to be an officer of the United States and is thereby not bound by any relevant restrictions.
But can he self-service at public expense? Oh, absolutely.
But don't you dare call him a King.
Re: (Score:2)
> But don't you dare call him a King.
I’m honestly curious. What’s your definition of a “king”? The No Kings organizers, as well as other “progressive” aligned organizers, literally within hours, and without the slightest bit of self reflection, organized nationwide protests, with identical signage, AGAINST the deposition of Maduro - they demand his reinstatement. Yet Maduro undeniably subverted elections, shot hundreds if not thousands of his opponents, stole billions
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Yes. All of the above.
Cultural effect (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, corruption is one of the most cultural specific activities. It is tremendously affected by the morals values taught to people. It is possible to teach people to be more ethical or less so, particularly with regards to which type of behavior is 'the worst'. You can teach people that murder and rape are evil and should be dealt with by execution, while theft is not so bad and gets a slap on the wrist. Or you can do it the other way around.
In addition, it is effected by the economic structure tremendously affects WHERE the criminals are. If you have a capitalist society the money focused criminals are going to go into private business. If you have a communist society, the money focused criminals will go into government.
So it is not surprising to me that Chinese plagiarists are going into government.
This does not necessarily apply to other cultures.
Re: (Score:1)
> So it is not surprising to me that Chinese plagiarists are going into government.
indeed. in other cultures it might be warmongers, outright criminals and genocidal sociopaths like in the us and israel. and rotten total dumbfucks like in europe.
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Or, from the other side, it might be people who think that children should be given drugs because they are gay, that women should be given jobs because they are women, and that jew-hater Mamdani is a decent person.
People falling into the classic trap (Score:3)
I think it was Margaret Mead who warned about the issues of taking observations from one culture and applying them to a different one.
And, this being Hong Kong, you've got significant added political implications. Given the current political climate there, I could easily see where toadies might be far more likely to enter government service there right now. Unfortunately the article is paywalled, so I don't know what time period is covered by these observations. Was it pre-crackdown? Post? A mix of the two? Those would be important bits of data to have when trying to unravel this.
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True! We can, however, extrapolate from it some anecdotal support for the theory that the civil service, due to the inherent power, attracts the corrupt.
More importantly, it directly supports the allegations that China's government is very corrupt. I don't know if they also tested for agreeability, which would identify "toadies".
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That's true. In a western, democratic capitalist society, the sociopaths end up running for office and very successfully tricking the normal people into voting for them, probably because normal people want no part of the toxicity that surrounds the halls of power. The civil service seems to, at least until recently, attract fairly honest, altruistic people who want to serve their country and fellow citizens.
Things we already know for 100 (Score:1)
Its a feature not a bug!
Research paper finds water is wet /s (Score:1)
Research paper finds water is wet /s
Obligatory Douglas Adams Quote (Score:2)
“The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents
You forgot... (Score:2)
"In China".
suprising news is not surprising (Score:1)
No one gets a job with the government because they like hard work.
Also more prevalent in large corporations (Score:2)
The book " [1]Snakes in Suits [wikipedia.org]" shows that about 3% of senior management is a psychopath, which is about three times the population average of about 1%. So it's not just in government.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_in_Suits
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect it's actually a lot higher in the higher levels of management:
"In a study published by the journal Psychology, Crime and Law, Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon tested 39 senior managers and chief executives from leading British businesses(3). They compared the results to the same tests on patients at Broadmoor special hospital, where people who have been convicted of serious crimes are incarcerated. On certain indicators of psychopathy, the bossesâ(TM)s scores either matched or exceeded thos
As a former public servant (Score:3)
I can provide anecdotal support for these findings.
Most of the career-successful people I worked with/under were bull-shitters who were good at social networking but frequently marginally competent at best. Supervisor level and upwards, this was disappointingly common. Some long term people felt safe and entrenched by the end of their careers and dropped the social networking for open rivalries.
There was an additional population of people whose sole goal was the public sector salary, job stability, and eventual pension. They tended to be lazy and/or incompetent. Occasionally they couldn't hold on and would burn out badly enough to lose their employment.
Finally, there was a third category of those who believed in public service (but were quite pleased with the salary, stability, and pension).
I'm not in China, but I would expect this to be a typical outcome anywhere the public service pay is attractive.
I assume the answer (Score:2)
I assume this makes them worse public servants, but is there direct evidence of that.
I'm not sure I would want a president that was 100% rule bound, I don't think that applies to the DMV though
How dubious is plagiarism? + poorly done study (Score:1)
They're only focusing on plagiarism, which I think is as more a measure of ineptness than dubious character. Since this was their master's thesis, one has to ask...how much did they plagiarize?...was it just some filler or did the plagiarize the core pieces? EVERYONE has cheated in some class because they either needed to in order to pass (some of my 400-level hard sciences classes where the professor didn't cover the exam material) or in some cases, the class is total bullshit and you're doing enough
Repent (Score:3, Funny)
> master's theses
It's called main thesis nowadays, you racist nazi.
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
You, sir, are a main of political comedy.
Dubious character redefined? (Score:2)
Missed the joke. Was it yours or the AC's? Don't see how it could have been the vacuous Subject. Perhaps you care to explain?
My original reaction to the story was to wonder about the relationship of "plagiarism" to "dubious character". There are various reasons for and definitions of plagiarism. I can actually see where a lack of originality might be a good thing for most of the people in the civil service. Most of them are supposed to be following the laws and rules as written and too much creativity can e