ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A hedge fund manager, a former pro wrestling executive and the world's richest man - what do they all have in common? For one, they're reportedly all billionaires. They've also all been tapped to work in President-elect Trump's future administration. The combined wealth of his administration could be more than $300 billion. So what could that mean for governance? Adrian Ma and Wailin Wong, from NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator, explain.
ADRIAN MA, BYLINE: Now, granted, the rich and well connected have always had a leg up when it comes to government and politics. But if Trump's picks are confirmed, his administration quite literally will be run by billionaires.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Not only billionaires, of course, but way more billionaires than your typical presidential administration.
MA: So I guess my first question is, what do you make of that?
STEVE NELSON: I wasn't surprised.
WONG: That's Steve Nelson. He's a professor of political science at Northwestern University. He and his colleagues recently did a study looking at billionaires around the world and how often they enter politics and government.
NELSON: And we found that 11% of the people on the list had entered politics, which means if you take nine randomly selected billionaires off that list, one of them is going to have political ambitions that go beyond just giving campaign contributions. They actually go into politics. So I wasn't super surprised to see that Trump found fellow members of his billionaire class that were willing to throw their hats into the ring.
MA: What was sort of surprising for Steve, though - that 11% of billionaires getting into politics and government was way higher than it was for other groups we might often think of as producing a lot of politicians. For example, Steve says less than 1% of lawyers in the U.S. go into politics. Interestingly, he says, it's more common to see billionaires get into the political realm in countries where governments are more authoritarian.
NELSON: China and Russia alone account for about half of the world's billionaire politicians.
WONG: If billionaires and government are more common in authoritarian regimes, what should we make of the fact that Trump's nominees draw heavily from the ranks of not just the merely wealthy, but the super rich, the 1% of the 1%? Darrian Stacy is a political science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy who studies how politicians' wealth can translate into policy.
DARRIAN STACY: There's some research that has looked at the impact of wealth on governance, but the research is really sort of a mixed picture.
MA: Darrian, by the way, says he's speaking as a private citizen, not on behalf of the Naval Academy or the U.S. government.
STACY: Some studies have shown that wealth can correlate with certain leadership traits, like risk taking or decision-making skills and strategic thinking, which are useful in both business and public administration. And then wealthy individuals often have access to large networks and resources that can aid them in policy development and implementation.
WONG: On the other hand, Darrian says there's also evidence that extreme wealth can create a disconnect between average citizens and those in power.
STACY: So studies on things like socioeconomic diversity and leadership suggest that leaders from wealthier backgrounds are less likely to prioritize policies addressing things like inequality, poverty and social safety nets. And there's some evidence that they might also unconsciously favor some policies that align with their own experiences and priorities, which, if you are looking to address inequality, those unconscious biases could actually perpetuate inequality.
MA: One more possible problem with uberwealthy business people in top-tier government roles is the potential for conflicts of interest, which government watchdogs actually criticized the first Trump administration for. This time around, Trump would be surrounded by even more of his fellow billionaires. And the concern is that these billionaire politicians could use their power and influence to benefit their own bottom lines.
WONG: Whether this is of concern to you may depend a lot on your own personal politics. But for Steve Nelson at Northwestern, it comes down to how he thinks about democracy.
NELSON: I think the problem with having a number of super wealthy people or a high share of super wealthy people occupying government positions is it creates a dilemma for democracy.
MA: Steve says, if democracy is about inclusiveness, about average people picking leaders to represent the people's interest, will a government staffed by millionaires and billionaires be able to do that?
WONG: Wailin Wong.
MA: Adrian Ma, NPR News.
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