Should leaders have expected to lead?

February 21st, 2013
monarchy
I occasionally hear people advocating monarchy with the idea that this way you end up with someone in charge who has known they were going to be running a country since they were a small child and have prepared (and have been prepared) accordingly. This makes some sense: running a country requires a specialized skill-set, and I see how starting on it early could help. But if we look at history, do we find that younger sons who ended up inheriting when they didn't expect to were generally better or worse kings than the ones who knew from birth that they would be king?

(This is going to be distorted by many things, including birth order and that younger sons were still royalty, but it might be a place to start.)

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Against Lyman Stone On Animal Welfare

Demographer Lyman Stone writes:

via Thing of Things March 21, 2025

Product in the age of AI

We’re seeing AI features pop up in every product we use. Slack, Google Drive, etc.

via Home March 18, 2025

How I've run major projects

focus • maintain a detailed plan for victory • run a fast OODA loop • overcommunicate • break off subprojects • have fun • bonus content: my project management starter kit

via benkuhn.net March 16, 2025

more     (via openring)