patrick.net

Dan8267 says

What Countries Still Have Kings or Queens?

Religion ensures a country remains backward.
Democracy, capitalism, education, and freedoms is what makes a country rise to the top.

Democracy, capitalism commerce, education, and freedoms is what makes a country rise to the top.

Strategist says

Democracy, capitalism, education, and freedoms is what makes a country rise to the top.

i think a bigger factor is mutual trust among citizens. this book explains it pretty well:

Dan8267 says

Surprise, surprise, basically only Muslim countries. Well, not much surprise there.

Don't be dissing Elizabeth II. She's my queen and I stand by her.

bob2356 says

Dan8267 says

Surprise, surprise, basically only Muslim countries. Well, not much surprise there.

Don't be dissing Elizabeth II. She's my queen and I stand by her.

European royalty have no power. Their sole purpose is to attract tourists and paparazzi.

rando says

Robert Axelrod is a great author. I highly recommend his books.

Interestingly, NPR's The Diane Rehm Show was discussing terrorism and their expert guest stated that almost every time a terrorist plot has been thwarted or a terrorist found, it has been because of cooperation with the local population, and if that population does not trust its government (they were discussing the attacks in Europe) then the population does not cooperate and it's basically impossible to find any person regardless of how much surveillance the government does.

One consequence of that principle is that the migration of strong Muslim theists decreases anti-terrorism effectiveness because these populations view America and European governments as untrustworthy. Another consequence is that attacks on civilian populations makes all populations less cooperative and thus makes it harder to kill the actual terrorists.

Cooperation is important.

bob2356 says

Don't be dissing Elizabeth II. She's my queen and I stand by her.

For the most part I like Elizabeth II. I don't like the very concept of monarchies, but as a person, she's actually quite decent. Most of the British royalty throughout history were not.

http://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-queen-elizabeth-ii

After months of begging her father to let his heir pitch in, Elizabeth—then an 18-year-old princess—joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II. Known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she donned a pair of coveralls and trained in London as a mechanic and military truck driver. The queen remains the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II.

That is respectable.