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Vladimir_Gritsenko comments on Mechanics without wrenches - Less Wrong
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It's interesting that China's leadership is full of engineers and economists; as a whole they're probably far more qualified to do their jobs than the leadership of most Western countries. I think there's some truth to the idea that you can have qualified leaders or you can have elected leaders but you can't have both. Getting elected just doesn't translate into being the best candidate for the job. If positions in the private sector were filled by popular vote, industry would grind to a halt. I think if you honestly consider that as a though experiment, it's obvious that only a truly absurd and impractical amount of voter rationality would solve the inherent problem, which is just that it isn't a sensible way to fill vacancies.
For what it's worth, I offer this summary of a study about Chinese and American education. Even though Chinese students know a heck of a lot more science, they can't reason scientifically any better than their American counterparts.
I confess I don't know a lot about China, and so my preference to live in almost any Western country and not in China may be biased by ignorance, but... would you prefer to live in China, or another authoritarian state but whose management would be experts in various fields? Do you honestly think such a state would be better at various important parameters of societal welfare?
A final point: while congressfolk may be less competent than we might wish, actual state managers - civil servants in high positions - are often accredited veterans in their fields.