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Notes -
A stereotypical cult.
Monarchism worked historically by making it easier to get men on the battlefield. Stability, incentive structure, Divine Right—those are all post hoc, paling in comparison to the ability to coordinate violence.
It faded away as state capacity increased by other means. Monetary, communications, and logistics technologies lead to professional standing armies. Those have huge advantages over the feudal retinue-of-retinues.
I don’t think you can justify a monarchy without attempting to wrest back the monopoly on violence. But a straight fight really isn’t the goal of a parallel institution. That leaves engineering situations where the host state can’t or won’t leverage its advantage. Which, in turn, means distance and information control.
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