Because institutions ran our societies (brilliantly) for much of the last 70 years, most of us in the West…

Because institutions ran our societies (brilliantly) for much of the last 70 years, most of us in the West have a level of knowledge of basic governance along a continuum from non-existent to childish. Take this latest purge. Both Xi and Putin have devoted much of their… https://t.co/OZbXRJMAeP

But the only game in town in governance is control of status rivalries. Uncontrolled status rivalry between elites destroys all societies. I’m not defending Xi and Putin here, or taking any sides in geopolitical politics. I don’t play the idiot team sports of social media life.…

There are only a handful of historically proven ways to control status rivalry. Probably the earliest was invasion and conquest, by offering continuous new vistas to pillage. Domestic elites always had a share of spoils, taking pressure off the local leadership. Most empires…

The most famous and longest-lasting mechanism (often combined with invasion) is monarchy. The centralisation of all status within a dominant hierarchy, networked to an extended ‘court’ of elite rivals. Sometimes hybridised with religion, as we did in the West, with the…

The other major option is to distribute status extensively throughout a society, to give many opportunities for rivals to achieve status. What we today would call the ‘checks and balances’ of democracy. Not allowing the concentration of status (power) in a small number of hands.…

These checks and balances are often today confused with democracy itself. But their origins are monarchies, with rivals to the King demanding greater checks on his power. That’s what the Magna Carta mostly was. The origin document in many ways for democracies even today. It…

Importantly, none of these mechanisms is foolproof. To put this in caps: THERE ARE NO UTOPIAS. Societies that survive are eternally vigilant about the control of elite status rivalries. They’re *always* the main game. /7

In this way, the modern history of Russia and China is really inevitability. Both nations were crippled by revolutions, leading to uncontrolled growth in elites and their rivalries. Putin and Xi see as their primary task the control of these rivalries. It’s the baseline for…