Are there any heads of state out there besides your own* who you hold an especially high opinion of? Like more so than others out there? If so, who and why?
*Sorry, but if I let people choose the leaders of their own countries then I suspect a lazy familiarity bias might prevail, so that is barred. This is supposed to be an opportunity to learn something about each other, and maybe a bit more about the world too.
To set the example, I'll be making the case here for Claudia Sheinbaum, the current president of Mexico. Yeah, her country faces a lot of very obvious challenges from lots of poverty to widespread corruption and gang violence to separatist movements and political violence on a scale we'd have to turn quite a few pages back to see in my country's history. It's not a First World country. Issues it has the average American's seem trivial in comparison. And yet their current president enjoys a job approval rating of 83 percent! She's one of the country's most popular leaders ever because she's aggressively tackling the issues that most concern the Mexican public, has set out the goal of advancing Mexico into the world's top 10 largest economies in the near future, and has also benefited from a recent upsurge in patriotic sentiment in light of a certain neighbor of theirs launching a trade war against them.
It may be worth pointing out that Mexico's politics are distinctive in certain ways. Namely, in contrast to here in the U.S. where I live, over in Mexico it's the political left that is associated with more nationalistic sentiment, for example, and that Sheinbaum comes from this tradition. Frankly, that's a prescription I would offer to the Democrats and the rest of the political left here in my country: contest the nationalist space! But Mexico also has a law in place that we would never have here: one requiring their government to be half-male and half-female in overall composition. The legislature is currently 50% male and 50% female as a result, and since Mexico's last president was male, only women were eligible to run in the country's most recent election amongst the parties that last time fielded male candidates. Sheinbaum is also one of just a few Jewish heads of state on Earth today and Mexico's first. Mexico is a less unitary place than the United States and so many social policies, including on such issues as abortion rights and gay rights, are decided at the provincial level...presently. You might say that they've never had a Roe V. Wade, stuff like that. Also, being as Mexico is more of a developing nation (kind of a Second World country if you will; the celebrity nation of Latin America, but clearly poorer and more rural than the U.S. and Canada, yet moving clearly in our direction fairly quickly). As such, many public services we take for granted over there cannot be just assumed to exist as yet in Mexico. It was only under the country's last president that they got a universal pension, for instance, and it was that policy change in particular that made him especially popular. Sheinbaum belongs to the same party
A few of the more notable elements of Sheinbaum's term as president so far have included the following, and in the italics below I'm quoting the Wikipedia summary of her tenure to date:
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Infrastructure and passenger rail
Sheinbaum committed to further expanding Mexico's passenger rail network,[175] publishing a constitutional amendment that restored the Mexican State's authority to use railway lines for passenger transport services.[176] In late 2024, she inaugurated the final sections of the Tren Maya and announced plans to integrate freight services into the train's operationswhile extending the network toward Progreso, Yucatán.[177][178][179] She also outlined her goal to construct approximately 3,000 kilometers of railroad, comprising the Mexico–Pachuca, Mexico–Nuevo Laredo, and Mexico–Nogales lines, to be completed in four phases.[180]
In 2024, Sheinbaum announced a MX$33 billion investment to modernize six ports across Mexico: Ensenada, Baja California; Manzanillo, Colima; Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; Acapulco, Guerrero; Veracruz, Veracruz; and Progreso, Yucatán.[181]
Sheinbaum has continued her predecessor's practice of employing SEDENA's Military Engineers Corps. to build government infrastructure projects.[182]
Energy
On 30 October 2024, Sheinbaum published a constitutional amendment reestablishing the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and Pemex as public entities, effectively reversing much of the 2013 energy reform. The amendment mandates that the CFE maintain a 54% share of electricity generation, with the remaining 46% managed by private companies under regulated conditions to prioritize public needs over profit.[168]
Welfare
During the early months of her tenure, Sheinbaum introduced the Women's Wellbeing Pension (Pensión Mujeres Bienestar), providing bimonthly financial assistance to senior women aged 60 to 64,[183][184][185] and launched the House to House Health (Salud Casa a Casa) program, offering medical care to the elderly and people with disabilities.[186] She also renamed the Benito Juárez Scholarship (Beca Benito Juárez) to the Rita Cetina Gutiérrez Universal Scholarship (Beca Universal Rita Cetina Gutiérrez), expanding it to provide bimonthly financial aid to all families with children enrolled in the public basic educational system.[187] On 2 December 2024, Sheinbaum elevated several social programs to constitutional law.[188]
On 22 October 2024, Sheinbaum announced the fusion of SEGALMEX and DICONSA into Food for Wellbeing (Alimentación para el Bienestar) to support small local producers, offer quality products at affordable prices, and contribute to food self-sufficiency.[189] With the fusion, the over 24,500 DICONSA stores, present in 90% of the municipalities of the country, will be reorganized, rehabilitated, and rebranded to Wellbeing Stores to Generate Happiness (Tiendas del Bienestar para Generar Felicidad).[190]
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She's also done much in the way of government reform (including notably conceding some authority to the country's judiciary) and, in contrast to her predecessor's liberal "hugs, not bullets" approach to crime, has taken a tougher, more data-driven approach that has included increased confrontations with organized crime by government forces and a nationwide gun buyback program similar to the one she famously implemented in Mexico City as its mayor before. Increased operations against cartels, however, have sometimes resulted in civilian casualties, which has been met with some controversy.
All in all, she's the best political in the world today, IMO. She's focused on expanding public welfare, expanding national ownership, reforming the government to simplify its structure and challenge corruption, getting tougher on crime, and frankly has managed considerable aggression from her neighbor to the north (both economic and now military as well) with complete mastery. On the social issues, she counts herself a feminist and champions abortion rights and recently became Mexico's first head of government to attend a gay pride parade. She's also clearly distanced herself from the Spanish royal family, notably not inviting King Felipe to her inauguration, and has prudently taken a neutral stance on the Israel-Hamas War. There's really nothing there I can think of that I dislike or disagree with.
Just wanted to highlight an example of what I think success looks like today in national leadership. Discussions of politics are usually mostly us griping and complaining about the overall state of affairs, so to get away from the typical downbeat tone of such exchanges, thought I'd focus a bit more on positives and solutions with this thread. Is there a head of government out there somewhere you find inspiring, exemplary, or both?
