PDF GOVERNMENT THAT GOES MAD

Now what if the ruler becomes mad? Would they still support them? It depends on what kind of madness they have. At one extreme, George III of Britain was mad for the last part of his reign, and the situation was resolved peacefully by installing his son as regent. At the other end of the scale, we have the examples of such dictators as Ceausescu who held on to power until overthrown by forces from within the country, or Saddam Hussein, whose madness brought down the wrath of a powerful enemy on his country.

The television series Game of Thrones is set in a world shortly after this happens. Their solution was to wait until the mad king convinced his guards that he was mad.

Then they killed him. Rebels then killed his eldest son, the son's wife, and her children. They missed two of his other children. A lot of this assumes a monarch with unlimited power. Note that in practice, monarchs were often more limited. The constitutional monarchy has long precedent, but even before that, lords in aggregate were often the real power.

The king needed the support of the nobility to actually do things. A mad king without the support of the nobility would simply be replaced. In an absolute monarchy the succesion is usually taken care of, provided there is an heir, who is uncontested. So, in the case of insanity, the heir takes over as acting regent. The same procedure would be followed if the king died, and the heir is still a child, then a regent is appointed until the heir comes of age.

Dictatorship are generally weaker on the succession part, as the dynastic principle of monarchies does not stabilize the sitation. When Lenin died, there was an internal struggle for power, which turned out quite bloody. Thus, when a dictator is declared insane, the same procedure, or non-procedure, will be followed as if the dictator had died.

If the dictator or monarch, only gradually goes insane, it strongly depends on how the inner workings of government. When, Fidel Castro became increasingly ill, he was able to transfer power to his brother. It very much depends on how the the absolute ruler goes mad, and how evil, with respect to country or population, this madness turnes out to be.

Hitler's Nero Decree was largely ignored, as the people who were expected to carry out the order were appalled by it, and could afford to disobey the order. However,one could argue whether Hitler was insane by that time. If a gone-mad dictator gives similar appalling orders, his subordinates might also agree to disobey the orders, or decide to remove the gone-mad dictator from power. By clicking "Post Your Answer", you acknowledge that you have read our updated terms of service , privacy policy and cookie policy , and that your continued use of the website is subject to these policies.

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What does an absolute monarchy or dictatorship do when the king goes mad? Bregalad 3, 2 13 It doesn't only happen with dictators, though: Things can actually be as bad, if not worse, because they have been put there by the people as it was supposed to be, so any legitimate intervention could be seen as antidemocratic, and a coup would be even worse. Let's keep our eyes open for any weird "accident", maybe?

Armed revolt or assassination are the traditional ways to deal with a mad king or dictator. Also these methods are often less frustrating than trying trying to rationalize your position to someone who is inherently irrational. An interesting exception is New Zealand's bloodless? They turn excentric, but are still effective rulers: He proclaimed himself a Voodoo god, claimed that one of his rivals transformed into a black dog and ordered every black dog in the country killed.

But despite such crazy antics, they are still effective rulers. Any decisions they make which have actual impact are in accordance with the interests of their key holders. There is really no reason to replace such an autocrat. Also, more often than not, such antics aren't a symptom of actual craziness, but rather an example of projecting power. They want to show that they can. They stop caring about governing at all: There are also cases of autocrats whose mental illness makes them either unable to rule or simply no longer interested in doing so. For example, Charles II of Spain was born mentally disabled.

This is actually a great thing for the supporters, because it means they can do whatever they want without the autocrat meddling with their affairs. Such a ruler might "officially" stay in power all their life, although the actual power is in the hands of their supporters. They become actively destructive: And then there are crazy autocrats who act in ways which actively harm their supporters.

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Such autocrats usually don't stay alive for long. A famous case is Roman emperor Caligula who wasted considerable amounts of money on pointless personal projects and according to legend insulted the senate by appointing his favorite horse a senator. When they had enough with his antics, he was murdered.

Or to give a more historically proven example, Peter III, Tsar off Russia , who started his regency with stopping the seven year war which Russia had almost won and making liberal reforms the country just wasn't ready for. Jail is not a solution - the solution is socialism and delivery," he told toyi-toying supporters outside the court.

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