Military / Civilian Service required

What POD would we need, that either military or civilian Services are required for political office?
And how would it change politics?
You know, something like STARSHIP TROOPERS.

With civilian service I mean those services that were made by Conscientous objectors, you know helping in hospitals or old people care homes etc.

But not all political offices would be open to those who served in civilian Services. Only if you served in the military you could become secretary of defense or Chancellor / President.

And the time you served would also influence how high you could rise.

What do you think?
 
If we wish to have a "Heinleinian" service system in the US, I think that the POD would be the choice of someone other than Lewis Blaine Hershey to run the selective service system. In our time line, Hershey, who ran the system from 1941 to 1970, saw it as a means of encouraging young men to do things that were good for society, i.e. to go to college, take up teaching, get married, and such. In other words, the task of providing recruits to the Armed Forces was secondary to social engineering.

This alternate director of selective service would have had to have had an alternate vision, one in which the "best and the brightest" were called to service. Thus, rather than a situation in which those who were drafted were presumed to have had nothing better to do, those who were not drafted would be seen as deficient in intelligence, physique, or character.

If such a system persisted over several decades, we would have a system where failure to be selected would be a significant handicap for seekers of high office. In other words, the requirement that senior officials have served need not be statutory.
 
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