The current system of state leadership has major flaws. Whether politicians care to admit it or not, their intentions, words and actions are often heavily (and at times, negatively) influenced by their own subjective interests, gaining votes, remaining in power or appeasing lobbyists. How about a new system that sets metrics and provides rewards to the top heads of state s(i.e. Presidents and Prime Ministers) for how well they perform during their term?

How about this:

Country leaders have a five year term in office without possibility for re-election. They can receive a bonus of up to $1 billion based on a number of metrics at the end of that five-year term. Yes, this is a large amount, but reasons are provided further down below.

Bonuses are assessed by an independent remuneration committee that is made up of a small number of highly educated and experienced individuals. These individuals must be either politically impartial or the quorum is split between the main political parties, with the assessment meeting aired live on television for transparency two days after the leadership term has ended.

The metrics: Economics, Public Well-Being, Education, Environment and Foreign Affairs. Each one is split into two parts to take into account short term result and likely long-term impacts. Committee members must have discretion to take into account uncontrollable circumstances, such as wars, natural disasters and pandemics.

Economics

Must take into account the nation’s GDP, financial markets’ growth, unemployment rates, consumption, government debt, and innovation.

Public Well-Being

Must take into account crime rates, poverty levels, public health, and life expectancies.

Education

Must take into account performance statistics from the nation’s schools and results must be independently audited. Standards cannot be lowered to improve results.

Environment

Must take into account the country’s carbon footprint, reductions in reliance on natural resources and development of renewable energy. As climate change continues to impact the world, this metric may become more and more interlinked with Public Well-Being.

Foreign Affairs

This must include building and maintaining relations that positively impact the nation, avoidance of wars and general global impact.

One billion dollars

Well, it is one of the most important and senior jobs in the world. Given the power that country leaders have, how skilled they must be to perform well in their jobs, and the intense and constant pressure they must bear, a bonus up to $1 billion is actually a reasonable figure in today’s day and age – especially to compete with top jobs in the private sector. Also, countries would experience more economic growth and reductions in wasted spending that would far outweigh this outlay. To get more, sometimes you have to spend more.

What positive effects could this have?

• Far higher motivation for leaders to genuinely acting in the best interests of a country’s people, without distractions from lobbyists, re-election etc.
• Potential to have a larger talent pool. We would see more highly skilled and intellectual candidates who otherwise wouldn’t want to pursue a political career would have more motivation to do so. Whilst it could be argued that some people might not be going into politics for the right reasons, there is a safety net that they wouldn’t be able to earn a significant amount of the bonus potential if they do not perform on the metrics.
• The metric split to take into account potential long-term impacts would mean that politicians are acting to benefit future generations.

Bribery prevention

There could be a risk that leaders are presented with financial rewards by major corporations, states or wealthy individuals with larger sums than the bonus potential to act in a particular way. The simple solution to this would be to legislate large penalties (i.e. 20 year prison sentence and return of the leadership bonus and gains made by the bribery + further punitive sum).

This is only a high-level idea without examination of the finer details. Please feel free to leave your comments below.