Humans are pack animals. We achieve most when we work together as a team. Teamwork can work very well with decisions debated and mutually agreed upon. However it remains the norm that teams have a leader. Ships have captains and countries have rulers. A ruler’s contract between the ruler and the ruled is that the ruler directs action in the best interests of the ruled, and that the ruled do as directed by the ruler.
I’m reading Louis XIII: The Making of a King, as research for my next book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Louis’s father was Henri IV, who was widely considered a very good king. His slogan was, a chicken for every peasant, on every Sunday. He was a victorious war leader, who, following decades of religious war, converted to Catholicism and enacted the Edict of Nantes, which granted freedom and tolerance for Protestants. The people loved him, and he loved the people.
The contract between ruler and ruled broke down in the reign of Louis XVI, and consequently the French Revolution broke out. It is a dangerous thing to foment revolution, but it is equally dangerous for a leader to lose either the love, or trust, of the people.
A majority of the English people loved Boris Johnson, as the 2019 general election demonstrated. That was because the people thought he was different, amusing, and entertaining. He played up to it with his disheveled, bumbling appearance and antics. He lost trust, if not love, with the controversy of the parties during lockdown, and the shambolic defence and fabrications which followed.
The people are protesting against their leaders in Iran and China. In Iran, it’s a consequence of the regime’s adherence to religious restrictions on women which require face-coverings. In China, Xi Jinping’s zero covid strategy seems increasingly less viable or acceptable to the people. The people have been protesting against Putin in Russia, due to the conscriptions for a hopeless war. All three of these countries have seen revolutions before. Their rulers can execute and jail dissenters, but it doesn’t make them more loved. The people have long memories. A ruler’s contract is fragile.