Think that depends a lot on the particular society. My home country Norway certainly "suffers" from the professional politicians, but they still have quite varied backgrounds: teachers, agriculture degrees, economists, political science, machine operator etc.
I'd say it depends a lot on to what degree a society is elitist or not. E.g. France and Britain seem very elitist oriented societies where the elite is groomed in elite schools. While a country like Norway is strongly anti-elite and has no concept of elite schools.
Every society has their particular traits. E.g. in Germany it seems like having a PhD in some science is almost a prerequisite for getting anywhere in politics to the point where some politicians have felt forced to fake a PhD to get anywhere.
> Think that depends a lot on the particular society. My home country Norway certainly "suffers" from the professional politicians, but they still have quite varied backgrounds: teachers, agriculture degrees, economists, political science, machine operator etc.
But after a year or more in office, they all seem to walk and talk the same way anyways.
And i can't shake the feeling that the diversity is slipping.
One of the old boys of AP, and perhaps one of the last with a industrial background to hold a government position, said that when he began he could work a full day at the factory and then go to meetings in the afternoon. But that nowadays you basically had to quit your other job to keep up, even on the local level.
But western societies have developed a system of professional politics where politicians are groomed for politics early on.
That is why they often become professional politicians early on and have degrees in a narrow set of fields and from a narrow set of schools.