I often write about how, in Russia, the normal path of social mobility into positions of power has been replaced by negative selection, which has led to the establishment of a regime of “the rule of the worst.” I came across an article by one of the founders of Dissernet (a Russian volunteer network exposing plagiarism in academic dissertations), which even includes an infographic on the subject:
The number of fake dissertations across different social groups.
In the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), there are none at all. On average, in the “economics and law” group (where plagiarism is clearly most widespread), the coefficient is 3.2. That can probably be taken as roughly representative of the population as a whole.
But among State Duma deputies, it is 41! Ten times worse.
These are lawmakers, after all: elections, competition, power, huge salaries, intense public scrutiny. Everything suggests they ought to be at least a little better than the average Russian. And yet a deputy is ten times worse. Ten times, for heaven’s sake.
What kind of economy, science, or national development can we even talk about when the system now runs on negative selection: if you are even slightly better than everyone else, you get pushed out; if you are slightly worse, welcome to the next level.