Serbia just elected the world's brainiest parliament

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Serbia just elected the world's brainiest parliament

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Comments (291)

duke_sam
It was an amazing achievement for the students list movement to get such a diverse group of new politicians elected. I’m very curious to see how government formation without a figurehead/leader goes. Most parliamentary democracies assume you are electing a person with the knowledge/hope the party leader will be sitting in the big chair at the end. Most also put a lot of power in that person’s hands with backbenchers sidelined from the day to day running.I really hope their success carries over into governance.
DataDaoDe
Knowing nothing about it this particular movement, the main danger I foresee is essentially hubris. That the PHDs will be overly confident in political decisions they make in new domains completely foreign to them, primarily due to their expertise in their own domains and that this will lead to disastrous policy decisions.I see this often in many areas. Perhaps they'll be lucky and have a few behavioral psychologists among them to maintain intellectual humility.
rayiner
I hope it works out for them. In my home country students overthrow the government and put a Nobel Prize winning economist in charge. Now GDP growth has collapsed and the security situation has become precarious.I’m also reminded of Ashraf Ghani, the last President of Afghanistan, who was a professor and wrote a book “Fixing Failed States.” He ended up fleeing the country like a coward as it collapsed.It’s notable that students played a major role in the 1979 Iranian revolution that ended up putting the Ayatollah in power. In fact to my knowledge, student-led revolutions have never produced a long term positive outcome. Any examples?
mirko22
I feel most comments in this thread do not really understand what Vućiċ regime was.Google Aleksandar Vućiċ Voja Nevolja meat grinder…Vučiċ is successor of people that assassinated Zoran Ðinďić, a Serbian prime minister. Basically drugs and arms dealers from either mafia, secret service or special forces.Even if this government ends up being corrupt the level of moral lows they would need to hit to reach previous regime is staggering.So people justifiably think it can’t get worse… but that only the time will tell…
el_psy_congroo
I am from Serbia, a student, and supported the movement from the start, and I hope it works, but there are a few risksI think it's inevitable that the "leaders" will just appear from the student list, then the student list gets destroyed, those leaders form their own parties and we'll elect another radical idiot who's not from the student listEven now a few days after winning the election, you already have people from the SL who have a "brand", and who get idolizedAlso people in our country are accustomed to corruption in our country, and if the new government starts beating down the corruption, the people will start hating the new government
Dansvidania
IMO more than the academic prowess, the key positive is that the newly elected representatives will have different priorities and perspectives, and be younger. I can’t help but thinking that young people that went through high achieving secondary studying must have internalised delayed gratification and long term thinking by necessity, and be at least trying to improve things for the longer term rather than short term gain.Then again, I might just be hoping it is so. Given that, sadly, similar movements elsewhere (perhaps with not as much laurel leaves) have quickly fallen apart. (5 star movement in Italy and Piraty in Czech Republic come to mind)Hopefully the Serbian youths learned from them.
prmph
Just because they are academics and experts in some scientific or technical field does not mean they are immune to corruption and abuse of power. Arguably they are just as vulnerable to these things.
jimmySixDOF
which brings to mind the old William F. Buckley Jr., who famously remarked that he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard University.But the idea of randomly selecting leaders as a leveling distribution is as old as Athens. We still practice it in Jury selection in much of the world.So this experiment in Belgrade might be worth watching and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they outperform previous and regional governments.
ykonstant
Quite a lot of cynicism and contempt expressed in this thread, and not entirely unjustified: historically, "governments of intellectuals" led to some of the worst regimes.However, I want to look at this experiment more optimistically, see if this assembly can defeat the stereotype. I'll be observing its activity with interest!
vmsp
It's extraordinary they managed to form a list in 2025 and defeat the super corrupt, super established incumbent. A huge win for Serbia and democracies everywhere.I'm a bit skeptic on all those professors and PhDs being a boon, though. In Portugal, we've been ruled by PhDs since 1926, if not before. Most ministers are professors, many of them independent. Results haven't been good. I hope Serbia proves us wrong.
hhsec
I dunno man. Having worked with organisations that exist purely to coordinate academics and doctors in the medical field made up of a committee of the same folks...I only have concern. Smart as they maybe in their fields...academics are usually poor at management, logistics, empathy and organisation.The committee of doctors, surgeons and biophysicists I supported couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery...they all had PhDs.
RandyOrion
At least student movement succeeded in an authoritarian / totalitarian country. The movement was a dangerous move and can be fatal. Please remember that in 1989, Chinese students and workers protested in Tienanmen Square, and got massacred and failed.At least this parliament is elected by people, not manipulated by a corrupted authoritarian / totalitarian party or such.At least Serbia society can get a chance to rest or recovery after a lot of destruction happened.Wish them the best.
brainless
I wish them all the success. This may threaten many governments. Youth and citizens around the world will watch how this government will perform. Hope.I feel governments are made of people who barely know anything. It is getting worse. From the US to European nations, India to Australia. Make deals with powerful people, get a seat, serve the powerful. That is modern democracy.
adverbly
Im so hyped to see how this goes!Power to the people man!I'm really excited for this to be successful and stay in place.It's going to end up being something quite unique perhaps in a ways similar to Switzerland's unique democracy.
aaa_aaa
We will see how spectacularly it will fail. But hey at least some young blood, they will probably try honestly.
msarda_23
Wow, this is such a cool thing! Having PhDs and MDs select the course of a country would be a first-of-its-kind social experiment, too. Serbia could become a great country to pursue higher studies. But what I would like to see more is how they tackle basic concepts like corruption, reduction of red-tapism, better infrastructure, and more. I think this would be a unique situation where people might choose between a couple of REALLY educated candidates, never have I seen that before anywhere.
siva7
> Dozens of them come from the academic world, and more than half have a Ph.D. or M.D.Pardon, i may be naive, but shouldn't a stable democratic parliament be somewhat a representation of the citizens who elected them? Do more than half of all serbians have a Ph.D.? I fear this "revolution" isn't what you think it is..
boccko_
And they won't be able to change anything due to the massive HR-like bureaucracy.
differentSoln
In India at one point AAP had raised hopes. But they couldn’t work as a team. Let us hope Serbia shows the way for others. If they get some good advisors it might help. AAP infighting felt to me like infighting of French revolutionaries though it was not that bloody.
niemandhier
It is a courageous experiment, I wish them the best.I hope they are confident enough to reach out to people who can help them in matters where not smarts but experience is needed.
bugake
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit (1988).
dzonga
good thing they're stem oriented. serbia can only go up from here.vs electing lawyers as done in other countries.
gmerc
The entire world should be cleaning up the toxic lead reside generation from it's legislative bodies. It's done enough.
photios
For the folks out there that remember the USSR, am I the only one getting strong Правда vibes from that headline?
throwaway384034
Are we still doing this thing where we attribute success in one area to completely different fields? You may as well elect Opus 5.5, seen as it is already superhuman at certain tasks.
749282361929
> a sociologist, several political scientistsHow embarrassing.
palata
> Rather than stand themselves, the students pulled together a slate of trusted figures—not just academics, but also farmers, lawyers, artists, teachers, and a former basketball player.I came here to say that it's not "just academics", as many of the comments here seem to imply.
willguest
There is often resistance to technocratic forms of government that, in my opinion, misses the mark, appealing to either a "they don't understand the real world" or a "we tried this before" argument, both of which deliberately ignore the "policy is personnel", reflecting the idea that their moral character is perhaps the most defining aspect when addressing large-scale change.It is clear from populist approaches that conducting business-as-usual without any foundational knowledge is dangerous and leads to corruption and regulatory capture, and it is equally true that purely rationalist efforts neglect the messy nature of political governance and social complexity, leading to an overly narrow idea that ends up not serving the people it claims to support.I expect that this government will rise or fall based on its ability to remain internally cohesive while also trying to resist (and hopefully influence) the many pressures that will be put on it by the regional and global vested interests.
meindnoch
Good start, but alas they cannot become a developed European nation until they sort out their historically ingrained russophilia.
zvmaz
What's the political leaning of this movement? Isn't this what's important?
jordanpg
To me, an unspoken truth about politics is that it is extremely boring. Not governing, that is interesting. Doing politics. It's not clear from the article how involved the Students plan to remain once the government is formed, but I suspect a return to conventional politics lies ahead, for better or for worse.
realo
Many say this cannot work.... checking notes ...Ah yes. China used to have 100% technocrats in their leadership 30 years ago. No one with a law degree in sight. Nowadays it is less, but they still have quite a few.It can work.
markm248
The Simpsons tackled this once.
ivanstame
good days are coming for my country, I am beyond happy <3
penguin_booze
Now, here's a challenge for you: name an elected government that's the polar opposite. The greatest by assemblage of premium-grade idiots to have ever managed by any civilisation. I know - it's a very hard question.
idiotsecant
technocratic governments are great when a strong leadership is present that also listens to the technocracy. But it's important to realize that technical skill does not correlate with political skills like consensus building, horse trading, compromise, etc that make governments actually work.What will happen here will strongly depend on how good these people are at actually playing the game of politics. I don't have any particular reason to be more or less optimistic than any regular slate of politicians.
vasco
I used to believe very hard in technocratic governments where experts lead instead of politicians merely consulting with them as most countries do (or pretend to do to give cover to whatever they'd do anyway). Supposedly very technocatric governments end up being more corrupt than average but I can't even remember sources, just that after reading about I became less of a believer. I really want to believe it has to be better than having old people who's whole career is politics but who knows.
nbajka
Oh yes, this happened on an episode of the simpsons.
avazhi
Pretty cringe, and if what I've seen at the top of university faculties is any indication, it's gonna be a shitshow. There's something to be said for at the very least the common working class man having a direct say in things, if not the deciding say in the things.There's no modern historical indication that more degrees results in better governance.
lifestyleguru
Only one Serbian university barely qualifies to international rankings. Education from these institutions is not what you think it is. I'm not arguing against Serbia in particular, this applies to most Eastern and Central European countries.
sMarsIntruder
Is that really difficult to analyse elections in a non-biased way? This article is really missing the point.
rvz
> Many of the new representatives have zero experience in politics. But their unparalleled professional expertise should be helpful in reforming Serbia,So non career politicians.This is essentially a technocratic government that is left leaning. Just because they are academics, researchers, doctors, engineers and sociologists does not mean they cannot go corrupt themselves (it will). The EU itself is heavily corrupt as well.We have also seen how corrupt a technocratic right government can get in the US. It will be no different to a left leaning one once money and promises are involved.To give an analogy of what this is, this is like electing effective altruists from Anthropic with the difference being that they are using your money (taxes) instead of theirs and giving lots of promises for your vote.If they are serious, they need to pass the world toughest anti-corruption laws while also significantly growing their own economy or borrowing economic policies from the least corrupt nations in the world such as Singapore and to exceed them.> Student List has promised to fight corruption and establish meritocracy, accountability, and the rule of law.While these are good promises, the problem is that this is the first lie that they have already made.They better do all four of them without angering the electorate otherwise they can’t be trusted.
christkv
Meh getting them elected is one thing can they overcome the institutions and the bureaucracy stuffed with corrupt friends and former politicians that’s completely different.
shevy-java
They need to translate the election victory into tangible improvements and results. Otherwise voters in Serbia would not see any difference to the cleptocracy established by Vukic.Hungary has this problem by the way - people thought Péter Magyar will fix, and change, Hungary. Recently Hungary signed a "we are ultra-right servants of Trump" in the USA (see https://telex.hu/english/2026/10/30/hungarian-fm-and-rubio-s...), thus validating all those who pointed out that Peter is just a younger face but the same Orban 2.0 in the end.Corruption runs very, very deep. I am also certain the Epstein network is not only much bigger than known, but has different actors and beneficiaries. To this day the US court system can not explain why only Maxwell is in prison. That makes logically - and logistically - no sense at all.
djfobbz
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stefantalpalaru
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Helloworldboy
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andrewstuart
“All our problems will be fixed when this other group get voted in”
locallost
Since they are not a political party, the issue will be who will run the institutions. They have 250 people on the election list. Institutions are also made of people. I believe these people are smart and know what they are doing, but they cannot do all of it themselves. I support this "experiment", but it will be interesting to see where they will find hundreds if not thousands of people to run the country. An established party has members as a pool to pick from.
feverzsj
Serbia is among the most corrupt countries. I doubt that will change anything.
d5lt5
It was a yellow revolution out of the CIA handbook, as usual students were used. Calling it the 'brainiest' is just a straight propaganda.Healthy democracies do not rely on student-led protests to overthrow the government. Someone was behind it and they got what they paid for.https://www.amazon.com/Jakarta-Method-Washingtons-Anticommun...
londons_explore
Whilst it seems like a good idea to have academics run government, history has shown that countries run by engineers and scientists tend to end up with some great roads and dams, but failing economically and socially in almost every other way.
small_model
We need a country to elect an AI government and see how it goes, on the ballot this year are Claude Fable, Grok, Carbon and Astra
secondary_op
US CIA and US State Department Behind Serbia's "Student List" Media N1 and Nova S (United Group) [video]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300051 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5lwZU7Q5U0 US government-funded pro-opposition outlet BIRN through its Media Ownership Monitor Serbia project admits the central Student List media channels - N1 and Nova S - were created by former US director of the CIA David Petraeus via KKR and former US Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter; The parent United Group was acquired and the media platforms built up from 2013-2014 onward as the center of opposition media in Serbia opposing Serbia’s existing leadership and institutions, and playing a central role in both “student protests” last year and the “Student List” movement this year; United Group was only recently (earlier this year) acquired by Alpac Capital, but KKR still maintains an undisclosed amount of shares with the move a likely an attempt to distance US involvement in the media network; When “leaderless” and “decentralized” protests are praised in the Western media, scroll down in the article where they eventually admit who the leaders and organizations are behind them, perform a simple internet search to identify the key people and investments making them possible to determine whether a movement is indigenous or the product of foreign interference;