The Rules for Rulers

Summary

The video script delves into the dynamics of political power, contrasting the challenges and strategies of rulers in both dictatorships and democracies. It suggests that power is not absolute and is influenced by the need to maintain support from key allies. In dictatorships, a small group of generals and bureaucrats hold significant power, and their loyalty can make or break a ruler. Rulers must manage resources carefully, as spending on public welfare can inadvertently empower rivals. Democracies present a different set of complexities, where power is dispersed among many, requiring rulers to secure the support of various societal blocks through targeted policies and laws. The script also touches on the role of taxes, the alignment of rulers' incentives with those of the citizens, and the conditions that make political stability or upheaval more likely. It concludes by emphasizing that power structures are ubiquitous and that understanding them is crucial for anyone who aspires to effect change.

Takeaways

• 👑 **Power Dynamics**: Ruling requires the support of key individuals who can execute actions on the ruler's behalf.
• 💰 **Treasure Control**: A ruler's true work is to manage resources effectively to maintain loyalty and power.
• 🤝 **Key Supporter Loyalty**: Spending resources on citizens can inadvertently empower rivals by providing them with a tool to sway key supporters.
• 🏛️ **Dictatorial Challenges**: Dictators must balance the rewards for key supporters with the needs of the citizens to maintain power.
• ⚖️ **Balancing Act**: Rulers, whether dictatorial or democratic, must balance the interests of various power stakeholders.
• 📉 **Minimizing Key Supporters**: Reducing the number of key supporters can lead to a more stable and longer-lasting rule.
• 🗳️ **Democratic Power Fracture**: In democracies, power is distributed among many, requiring rulers to win the favor of a broader base.
• 💼 **Taxation and Productivity**: Democracies often have lower taxes and focus on increasing citizen productivity, which benefits the state and its leaders.
• 🛣️ **Infrastructure and Wealth**: Representatives invest in public goods to increase productivity and quality of life, aligning their interests with the populace.
• ⛓️ **Resource Curse**: Dictatorships relying on resource extraction can afford to ignore their citizens, leading to a lack of incentive for improvement.
• 🌐 **Power Structures Universality**: The rules of power apply universally, from the smallest organizations to the largest governments.

Q & A

What is the primary difference between a ruler in a dictatorship and one in a democracy?

In a dictatorship, power is concentrated and often maintained through force and a small number of key supporters, whereas in a democracy, power is more dispersed among many citizens and representatives, and is maintained through negotiation and the support of a broader base.

How does a ruler in a dictatorship maintain power?

A dictator maintains power by keeping key supporters loyal, controlling the nation's treasure, and minimizing the number of key supporters to reduce competition and potential threats to their rule.

What is the significance of 'keys to power' in the context of the script?

The 'keys to power' refer to individuals or groups who hold significant influence or authority and are essential for a ruler to maintain their position, whether in a dictatorship or a democracy.

How does a benevolent dictator face challenges in spending the nation's wealth?

A benevolent dictator faces the challenge of balancing the allocation of the nation's wealth between improving the lives of the citizens and maintaining the loyalty of key supporters, as resources spent on one area may not be available for the other.

What is the role of the 'treasure' in maintaining a ruler's power?

The 'treasure' represents the nation's wealth and resources. It is crucial for a ruler to control and distribute it effectively to secure the loyalty of key supporters and to maintain their power base.

Why might a ruler in a democracy have a longer tenure than one in a dictatorship?

A ruler in a democracy may have a longer tenure because they have a larger number of key supporters, making it harder for any single rival to amass enough power to challenge their rule. Additionally, the democratic system often provides checks and balances that can prevent rapid shifts in power.

How do democracies use tax codes and laws to reward key blocks of voters?

Democracies often have complex tax codes and laws that are designed to reward specific blocks of voters, such as farming subsidies for the farming community. These rewards are strategic to secure and maintain the support of these key voting blocs.

What is the relationship between the number of key supporters a ruler needs and the tax rate in their country?

The relationship is generally inverse; the more key supporters a ruler needs, the lower the tax rate, because representatives in democracies can afford to take a smaller percentage from each citizen to pay their key supporters due to the higher productivity of educated and freer citizens.

Why are democracies generally better places to live than dictatorships?

Democracies are often better places to live because the needs of representatives are more aligned with a large portion of the population, leading to increased productivity and a higher quality of life for citizens, which in turn benefits the ruler and their key supporters.

What factors can make a coup or revolution more likely in a country?

A coup or revolution is more likely when the current quality of life is poor, or when a significant resource is discovered that is not dependent on the productivity of the citizens. These factors can change the risk-reward calculation for potential power-seekers, making a coup worth the risk.

How do the rules for rulers apply to various forms of leadership beyond traditional political roles?

The rules for rulers apply to all structures of power, including corporate CEOs, deans of universities, chairs of homeowner's associations, and other leadership roles, as all involve managing key supporters and resources to maintain their position and achieve their goals.

Outlines

00:00

👑 The Illusion of Power and the Rules for Rulers

This paragraph introduces the concept of political power and the complexities of ruling. It challenges the viewer to consider why rulers often act in ways that seem contrary to the best interests of their country. The narrator explains that power is not absolute and is influenced by those who support the ruler. The key to power lies in gaining and maintaining the loyalty of 'key supporters', which includes generals, bureaucrats, and regional leaders. The ruler's true task is to manage resources effectively to maintain this loyalty. The paragraph also touches on the tension between using resources for the benefit of the citizens versus using them to secure loyalty, highlighting the precarious balance rulers must maintain.

05:01

💰 Controlling the Treasure and the Dynamics of Dictatorship

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of how a dictator maintains power, emphasizing the importance of controlling the nation's resources, or 'treasure'. It discusses the need to keep key supporters loyal, which is a challenge when resources are finite. The paragraph explores the idea that benevolent dictators face a dilemma: spending on the citizens' welfare can strengthen rivals if those resources could be used to secure loyalty. It also highlights that power structures in countries vary, with some needing only a handful of key supporters, while others require many. The narrator advises minimizing the number of key supporters to prolong a ruler's reign, as managing a large number of them can be problematic and open to rivalries.

10:03

🗳️ Democracy's Complexities and the Role of Representatives

This paragraph contrasts dictatorship with democracy, highlighting the different challenges faced by rulers in each system. In a democracy, rulers must negotiate with legislative bodies and manage a broader base of key supporters. The power is more fragmented, and rulers must appeal to a larger number of citizens. The paragraph discusses how representatives can use the concept of 'blocks' to categorize citizens and reward them accordingly, using complex tax codes and laws as a means to maintain power. It also touches on the strategies used to secure votes and the importance of minimizing the number of key supporters, even in a democracy, to ensure a longer tenure in office.

15:05

🤔 The Calculus of Power and the Risks of Coup

The final paragraph discusses the relationship between tax rates and the number of key supporters a ruler needs, with a focus on how democracies tend to have lower taxes due to the broader base of support. It explains that representatives can afford to take less from each citizen because the citizens' productivity is higher, which in turn generates more wealth. The paragraph also explores the conditions that lead to revolutions and the factors that contribute to the stability of both democracies and dictatorships. It concludes by emphasizing the inevitability of power structures and the importance of understanding them, regardless of one's position in society.

Keywords

💡Political Power

Political power refers to the ability of an individual or group to control and influence the decisions and policies of a country or organization. In the video, it is discussed in the context of both dictatorships and democracies, highlighting how different structures require different strategies to maintain and gain power.

💡Key Supporters

Key supporters are individuals or groups that hold significant influence or authority and are essential to a ruler's or leader's ability to maintain power. The video emphasizes that securing the loyalty of these key supporters is crucial for a ruler's success, whether in a dictatorship or a democracy.

💡Treasure

In the context of the video, 'treasure' symbolizes the resources, wealth, and funds that a ruler has at their disposal. It is used to maintain loyalty among key supporters and to execute the ruler's agenda. The video discusses how the distribution of this treasure is a central aspect of a ruler's strategy to stay in power.

💡Dictatorship

A dictatorship is a form of government where a single person or a small group holds absolute power. The video script explores the dynamics of power within a dictatorship, including the need for loyalty, control over resources, and the challenges of managing a few but powerful key supporters.

💡Democracy

Democracy is a system of government where power is vested in the people and typically exercised through a system of representation. The video contrasts the operation of power in democracies with that in dictatorships, noting the broader base of key supporters and the need to appeal to a larger population for support.

💡Loyalty

Loyalty, in the video, is depicted as a commodity that rulers must secure from their key supporters. It is a critical factor in maintaining power, with the video suggesting that the distribution of treasure and rewards is a primary means of ensuring this loyalty.

💡Taxation

Taxation is the compulsory financial charge levied by a government on workers and businesses to fund public expenditures. The video discusses how the level of taxation varies between democracies and dictatorships, with the latter often imposing higher, more direct taxes on their citizens to fund loyalty and maintain power.

💡Revolution

Revolution refers to a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. The video script touches on the conditions that make revolutions more likely, such as when a ruler loses control over their key supporters or when the general population's quality of life is poor.

💡Productivity

Productivity in the video is linked to the economic output and efficiency of a country's citizens. It is a factor that influences the amount of treasure available to a ruler and their key supporters. Democracies are suggested to be more conducive to high productivity, which in turn affects the quality of life and stability of the government.

💡Corruption

Corruption is the dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically for personal gain. The video presents corruption as a tool of power used by rulers in both democracies and dictatorships to maintain the support of key individuals or groups, often through the manipulation of laws and regulations.

💡Coup

A coup, short for coup d'état, is the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group. The video discusses how coups are more likely to occur in certain political climates and how they often result in a change of power among the elite rather than a fundamental shift in the power structure.

Highlights

The concept of political power is explored through the metaphor of a throne, which influences the ruler as much as the ruler wields it.

A ruler's power is not in acting alone but in getting others to act on their behalf, using the kingdom's resources.

Key supporters are essential to a ruler's power, and their loyalty can make or break a reign.

Control over a kingdom's treasure is critical for maintaining power and loyalty among key supporters.

The balance between spending on citizens and maintaining loyalty among key supporters is a delicate act for rulers.

In dictatorships, a small group of powerful individuals can sway the balance of power.

The number of key supporters a ruler has correlates with the average length of their reign.

Minimizing key supporters is a strategy for maintaining power, as seen in the aftermath of a successful coup.

Democracies require a different approach to power, with rulers needing to negotiate and appeal to a broader base of citizens.

In democracies, power is fractured and maintained through the appeal to various voting blocks.

Tax policies and laws in democracies are often designed to reward key voting blocks and maintain the ruling party in power.

The structure of power in a society influences the quality of life for its citizens, with democracies generally providing a higher standard of living.

Resource-rich dictatorships can maintain stability by ignoring the majority of their citizens, focusing only on maintaining loyalty among a few key supporters.

Middling dictatorships face a higher risk of revolt due to the need to maintain a minimum standard of living for their workforce.

The romanticized notion of a popular revolt toppling a dictatorship is often a myth; real change comes from within the ruling elite.

Stable democracies are resistant to coups because the potential rewards do not outweigh the risks for potential key supporters.

The rules of power apply universally, from global corporations to small community organizations, and understanding them is key to effecting change.

Power is a necessary component for anyone aspiring to make a difference in the world, regardless of their position or title.

Transcripts

[ominous music plays]

Do you want to rule?

Do you see the problems in your  country and know how to fix them?

If only you had the power to do so.

Well. You've come to the right place.

But, before we begin this  lesson in political power,

ask yourself,

why don't rulers see as clearly as you,

instead acting in such selfish,

self-destructive, short-sighted ways?

Are they stupid?

These most powerful people in the world?

Or, is it something else?

The throne looks omnipotent from afar,

but it is not as it seems.

Take the throne to act,

and the throne acts upon you.

Accept that or turn back now before we discuss,

The Rules for Rulers.

[upbeat music softly plays]

No matter how bright the rays of any sun king,

No. Man. Rules. Alone.

A king can’t build roads alone,

can’t enforce laws alone,

can't defend the nation,

or himself, alone.

The power of a king is not to act,

but to get others to act on his behalf,

using the treasure in his vaults.

A king needs an army, and someone to run it.

Treasure and someone to collect it,

Law and someone to enforce it.

The individuals needed to make the  necessary things happen are the

king's keys to power.

All the changes you wish to make  are but thoughts in your head

if the keys will not follow your commands.

In a dictatorship, where might makes right,

the number of keys to power is small,

perhaps only a dozen generals,

bureaucrats, and regional leaders.

Sway them to your side and  the power to rule is yours,

but never forget, displease them,

and they will replace you.

Now, all countries lie on a spectrum from those

where the ruler needs few key supporters,

to those where the ruler needs many.

This foundation of power is  why countries are different.

Yet many keys, or few, the rules are the same.

First,

get the key supporters on your side.

With them, you have the power to act.

You have everything.

Without them,

you have nothing.

Now, in order to keep those keys to power,

you must, second,

control the treasure.

You must make sure your treasure is raised

and distributed to you,

[for all your hard work]

and to the keys needed to keep your position.

This is your true work as a ruler,

figuring out how best to raise

and distribute resources,

so as not to topple the house of cards upon which

your throne sits.

Now you, aspiring benevolent dictator,

may want to help your citizens,

but your control of the treasure  is what attracts rivals,

so you must keep those keys loyal.

But there’s only so much treasure in your vaults,

so much wealth your kingdom produces.

So beware.

Every bit of treasure spent on citizens

is treasure not spent on loyalty.

Thus, doing the right thing,

spending the wealth of the nation

on the citizens of the nation,

hands a tool of power acquisition to your rivals.

Treasure poured into roads, and  universities, and hospitals,

is treasure a rival can promise to key  supporters if only they switch sides.

Benevolent dictators can spend  their take on the citizens,

but the keys must get their rewards,

for even if you have gathered the most loyal,

angelic supporters,

they have the same problem as you,

just one level down.

Being a key to power is a position of power.

They too, must watch out for rivals from

below or above,

thus the treasure they get must also

be spent to maintain their position.

The loyal and dim may stay  by your side no matter what,

but smart key supporters,

will always watch the balance of power,

ready to change allegiance,

if you look to be the loser,

in a shifting web of alliances.

In countries where the keys are few,

the rewards are great,

and when violence rules,

the most ruthless are attracted,

and angels that build good works will lose

to devils that don't.

So buy all the loyalty you can, because loyalty,

in dictatorial organizations  of all kinds, is everything.

For the ruler, anyway.

Thus, the dictatorship exposed.

A king who needs his court to raise the treasure

to keep the court loyal and

keep raising the treasure.

This is the self-sustaining core of power.

All. Outside. Is. Secondary.

Now a king with many key  supporters has real problems,

not just their expense,

but also their competing needs and  rivalries are difficult to balance.

The more complicated the social  and financial web between them all,

the more able a rival is to sway a critical mass.

The more key supporters a ruler has on average,

the shorter their reign.

Which brings us to the third rule for rulers.

Minimize key supporters.

If a key in your court becomes unnecessary,

his skills no longer required,

you must kick him out.

After a successful coup,

the new dictator will purge

some of those who helped him come to power,

while working with the underlings  of the previous dictator,

which, from the outside, seems a terrible idea.

Why abandon your fellow revolutionaries?

Are the old dictator's supporters not a danger?

But the keys necessary to gain power

are not the same as those needed

to keep it.

Having someone on the payroll  who was vital in the past,

but useless now, is the same

as spending money on the citizens.

Treasure wasted on the irrelevant.

And by definition, a dictator  that pulls off a coup

has promised greater treasure  to those switching sides.

The size of the vault has not changed,

so the treasure must be split among fewer.

A dictator that sways the right  keys, takes control of the treasure,

cuts unnecessary spending, kills unnecessary keys,

will have a long and successful career.

Seeing the structure unveiled,

you might be excited to get started

and control a country to the  benefit of you and your cronies,

or you might be exhausted,

wishing to do good,

but seeing the structural difficulties,

now turn to democracy for salvation.

So let us discuss

Rulers as Representatives.

[pensive music plays]

You again might have grand dreams  of the utopia you wish to build,

but, no man rules alone,

and never more so than in democracy.

Presidents and Prime ministers must negotiate with

their senates and parliaments,

and vice versa.

And they all have their own  key supporters to manage.

In a well-designed democracy,

power is fractured among many,

and is taken not with force but with words,

meaning you must get thousands

or millions of citizens to,

if not like you on election day,

at least like you better than the alternative.

With so many voters and

such fractured power it's impossible to,

as a dictator would, follow  these rules and buy loyalty.

Or is it?

Of course not.

Don't think of citizens as individuals  with their individual desires,

but instead as divided into blocks:

the elderly,

or homeowners,

or business owners,

or the poor.

Blocks you can reward as a group.

Democracies have wildly  complicated tax codes, and laws,

not as accident but as reward  for the blocks that get and keep

the ruling representatives in power.

Farming subsidies,

for example, have nothing to do with

the food a nation needs,

but entirely with how key the  vote of the farming block is.

Countries where farmers’  votes don't swing elections,

don’t have farming subsidies.

If a block doesn’t vote, such as younger citizens,

then no need to divert rewards their way.

Even if large in number,

they are irrelevant to gaining power.

Which, is good news for you.

One less block to sway and the treasure

you give your key blocks  has to come from somewhere.

If you want long years in office,

rule three is your friend in a democracy  just as much as a dictatorship.

You can't eliminate those who don’t vote for you,

but there is still much you can do.

Once in power,

make it easier for your key blocks to vote

and harder for others.

Establish voting systems that reduce

the number of blocks you need to win,

the more rivals you get,

very handy indeed.

Draw election borders to predetermine

the results for you or your cronies,

and have party pre-elections

with Byzantine rules to determine

who blocks even can vote for.

Mix and match the above for  even better power perpetuation.

When approval ratings couldn't be lower,

yet re-election rates couldn't be higher,

you'll know you've succeeded.

Now, enough with thinking about the citizens.

Even in a democracy there still are very

influential individual key  supporters you need on your side

because their money,

or influence, or favors keeps you in power.

While you can’t just promise  to give them treasure directly,

as a dictator would,

you can create loopholes for their investments,

pass laws that they’ve written,

or print “Get out of Jail  Free” cards for their actions.

Not a wheelbarrow of gold to the door,

but contracts for their business.

You as ruler do have roads to build,

or computers to maintain,

or buildings to reconstruct.

No man rules alone, after all.

Or you could take the moral path,

and ignore the big keys.

But you'll fight against those who didn't.

Good luck with that.

Corruption is not some kind of petty crime,

but rather a tool of power, in democracies

and dictatorships,

but more on that another time.

So, accept the favors,

sway the key blocks

and you will get into power,

ruling with actions that  look contradictory and stupid

to those who don't understand the game.

Privately helping a powerful industry you

publicly denounced,

or passing laws that hurt  a block that voted for you.

But your job isn’t to have a consistent  understandable ruling policy,

but to balance the interests of  your keys to power, big and small.

That is how you stay in office.

Now with all this headache  of being a representative,

you may wonder,

looking at rule three why  couldn’t you skip all this

block-building, favor-trading nonsense,

and just bribe the army to take power?

We must finally turn to

Taxes and Revolts.

[grim music plays]

You must understand rule two  and how the treasure is raised

and used to hold a country together.

If we graph the tax rate of countries versus

the number of key supporters the ruler needs,

there’s a clear relationship.

More democracy, lower taxes.

If you're sitting comfortably in a  cushy democracy you may scoff at this,

but your fellow citizens who don’t earn enough,

don’t pay income taxes and

get rebates,

bringing the average tax rate down.

In dictatorships, this doesn’t happen.

Dictatorships often forgo tax paperwork

in favor of just taking wealth directly.

It’s common for the dictator to force farmers

to sell their produce to him for little,

then turn around and sell it on the open market,

pocketing the difference at an  unthinkably high equivalent tax rate.

So, taxes in democracies are low  in comparison to dictatorships.

But why do representatives lower their take?

Well, cutting taxes is a crowd pleaser.

Dictators have no need to  please the crowds and thus

can take a large percentage  from their poor citizens

to pay key supporters.

But representatives in a democracy  can take a smaller percentage

from each to pay their key supporters,

because their educated, freer citizens

are more productive than peasants.

For rulers in a democracy,

the more productivity the better.

Which is why they build  universities, and hospitals,

and roads, and grant freedoms,

not just out of the goodness of their hearts

but because it increases citizen productiveness,

which increases treasure for the  ruler and their key supporters,

even when a lower percentage is taken.

Democracies are better places  to live than dictatorships,

not because representatives are better people,

but because their needs happen to be aligned

with a large portion of the population.

The things that make citizens more productive

also make their lives better.

Representatives want everyone productive,

so everyone gets highways.

The worst dictators are those whose incentives

are aligned with the fewest citizens,

those who have the fewest keys to power.

This explains why the worst  dictatorships have something in common.

Gold, or oil, or diamonds, or similar.

If the wealth of a nation is  mostly dug out of the ground,

it’s a terrible place to live because a gold mine

can run with dying slaves,

and still produce great treasure.

Oil is harder,

but luckily foreign companies  can extract and refine it

without any citizen involvement.

With citizens outside this cycle,

they can be ignored,

while the ruler is rewarded and the keys

to power kept loyal.

Thus, we live in a world where the best,

smartest democracies are stable,

the worst, richest dictatorships are stable,

and in between is a valley of revolution.

The resource-rich dictators build roads

only from their ports to their resources,

and from their palace to the airport,

and the people stay quiet

not because this is fine or even

because they’re scared,

but because the cold truth is

starving, disconnected, illiterates

don't make good revolutionaries.

Now, a middling dictator without resources must,

as mentioned before,

take a large amount of wealth directly

from his poor farmers and factory workers.

Thus, two roads won't do,

and so he must maintain some  minimums of life for the citizens.

But keeping the work-force somewhat connected

and somewhat educated and somewhat healthy

makes them more able to revolt.

Now understand, the romantic image of

the people storming the gates

and overthrowing their  dictator is mostly a fantasy.

If you run a middling dictatorship,

the people only storm the palace

when the army lets them,

to remove you,

because you lost control over your keys

and are being replaced.

This is why after popular revolts  in middling dictatorships,

the new ruler is often the  same as the old, if not worse.

The people didn't replace the king,

the court replaced the king,

using the peoples' protest  they let happen to do it.

The very things a benevolent dictator  wants to build to cross this valley,

take treasure away from the keys to power,

and make the citizens more able to revolt,

often ending in a stronger ruler less likely

to build bridges and more loyal to his keys.

On the other side, the best  democracies are stable,

not just because the large number  of keys and their competing desires

makes dictatorial revolt  near-impossible to organize,

but also because the revolt would destroy

the very wealth it intended to capture,

the high productivity of the citizens.

Plus, those helping the  would-be dictator in a democracy

know he plans to cull key  supporters once in power.

That’s what’s a coup is.

So potential key supporters  must weigh the probability

of surviving the cull and getting the rewards,

versus the risk of being on the

outside of a dictatorship they helped create.

In a stable democracy, that’s a terrible gamble.

Maybe you'll be incredibly wealthy,

but probably you'll be dead

and have made the lives of  everyone you know worse.

The math says no.

Being on the right side of a  coup in a dictatorship means

having the resources to get you and  your family what the peasants lack:

health care,

education,

quality of life.

This is what make the  competition for power so fierce.

But in a democracy most already  have these things, so why risk it?

So, the more the wealth of a nation comes from

the productive citizens of the nation,

the more the power gets spread out,

and the more the ruler must maintain

the quality of life for those citizens.

The less,

the less.

Now if a stable democracy becomes very poor,

or if a resource

that dwarfs the productivity  of the citizens is found,

the odds of this gamble change,

and make it more possible for  a small group to seize power.

Because if the current  quality of life is terrible,

or the wealth not dependent on the citizens,

coups are worth the risk.

When democracies fall,

these are usually the reasons.

[somber music plays]

These rules for rulers explain not only why

some men are monsters

and others are merciful,

but everything about politics.

From war, to foreign aid,

to political dynasties, to corruption.

All of which, we can talk about at another time.

But for now, you aspiring ruler,

may be disgusted by the world of politics,

and have decided to avoid it entirely,

but you cannot, for rulers come in many forms.

Yes, kings, presidents and prime ministers,

but also deans, dons, mayors, chairs, chiefs.

These rules apply to all  and explain their actions.

From the CEO of the largest  global corporate conglomerate,

who must keep his board happy,

to the chair of the smallest

home owner’s association,

managing votes and spending membership fees.

You cannot escape structures of power.

You can only turn a blind  eye to understanding them,

and if you ever want the change you dream about,

there is a zeroth rule you cannot ignore.

Without power

you

can affect nothing.

You may not like these rules, but surely,

better you on the throne than someone else.

And who knows, maybe,

you’ll be different. [somber music, slowly fades]