Article 101 of the Turkish constitution stipulates that the President of Turkey has to have a “higher education diploma” which in this context means: a (4-year) university degree. Apparently, there is some controversy as to whether the current office holder, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meets this requirement [1].
I wonder if there are other examples for formal education requirements for elected offices (head of state, member of parliament, governor, mayor, sheriff etc.). For instance, is there a U.S. state in which a prospective state legislator must have at least a GED to run for office or is there a city where the dogcatcher must possess a BS in biology?
Ohio requires that sheriffs have high school diplomas, and there’s another requirement that can be met by experience or a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement or criminal justice. And our judges, prosecutors, county engineers, and coroners are all required to hold the relevant professional license (law/engineer/medical) that, in modern times, you can’t get without the corresponding degree.
In Alabama. the position of coroner is an elective office. Alabama law requires that a prospective coroner “Has obtained a high school diploma or its recognized equivalent.” It also requires the coroner to successfully complete a training course within 180 days after being elected.
Coroners in the UK “~ must be qualified barristers or solicitors, or a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), with at least five years’ experience after qualifying. A few coroners have qualifications in both law and medicine.”
MP’s on the other hand just have to have avoided prison or being sent to The House of Lords.
A proven winner. Let’s go back to the Louisiana literacy test, for example. There’s the little problem that it kept out blacks and po’whites, and a recent study showed that most Harvard students who tried to taking it actually failed it, but sure, let’s give governments the power to restrict the right to vote based on a subjective standard.
And it wasn’t hard, in the same way a carny game isn’t hard: If the carny likes you, he’ll step on the magic rope and all of a sudden the milk bottles just come crashing down. Otherwise, well, Nolan Ryan hisownself couldn’t make a single one budge.
Nope, the questions were rigged, and designed to have multiple possible answers: If you were the wrong type, you’d pick the right one, but it would be the wrong right one, and you wouldn’t get to vote.
That would be great if only we could find a way to do it that isn’t discriminatory (other than against idiots, of course). It’s hard to see how that’s going to happen.
(Would it have stopped Trump in his tracks from Day 1?)
One of the recent Thai constitutions made it mandatory for senators and MPs to hold a bachelor’s degree, but I’m not sure if that’s still the case since there’s essentially no constitution at the moment. It proved a controversial requirement, with many people pointing out the ease of simply buying a degree in Thailand.