Politics covers many important topics. Top politicians have to handle at least six arenas – each important in their own way. If you aspire to be a top politician you have to be resourceful in the following different fields:

1. Ideology – to have a thoroughly considered system for analysis of your society and ways to develop it in the future. It is about  content in your politics. What are the core issues that your party focuses on, and what solutions do you propose for them?

2. Running a campaign – can you win the elections?

3. Negotiating – how successful are you when it’s time to negotiate with other parties – and more importantly how will you act when it comes to forming a government?
How good are you when it’s time to form and sustain alliances, not only at national level, but also at the EU-level and in international fora?

4. Leadership

a) how can you develop your political and policy proposals within your ministry with help from your political advisers and non-political officials and experts?

b) How can you see to it that this development leads to your desired goals?

c) How can you lead your own party in a way that develops the ideology?

d) How do you minimise the risk of fatigue in ideology development so that you don’t run out of good ideas and proposals after just  a few years?

e) And last, but not least; how do you lead the country and your own ministry if Sweden is threatened by a peace time crisis or war?

5. Communications – how do you act continuously in both traditional and social media to support your party’s issues? Your personal brand is always at stake in this arena.

6. Winning debates – are you good at arguing and discussing  with other politicians and able to win debates in  parliament and in the media?

Your responsibility as a voter is to cast your vote only to those politicians that you believe are the best in all these six arenas.

Any suggestions on what readers may think I have omitted, please feel free to comment.

AUTHOR STAFFAN ROS

Former director (a non-political official) at the Ministry of Education and Research