Frank Buckley has recently published (today?) The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America. It explores the trend in modern democracies toward increasing monarchization of gubmnt. We elect leaders and gubmnts, but increasingly, with the use of "executive orders" [in the US] and the dominance of a Prime Minister in parliamentary gubmnts, we treat the head of gubmnt as a monarch. We grant the leader rights, powers, and privileges that go well beyond the civics-class types of checks and balances or separation of powers.
From his chapter, titled "Tyannophilia":
Tyrants have gotten a bum rap. Oedipus... wasn't a bad ruler. Marrying his mother and killing his father was simply bad luck (Really bad luck.) In Greece's classical period, a tyrant was often a benign ruler who had risen to power with the support of the middle and lower classes, whom he thereafter protected against the aristocracy.
As little people, we love having a protector and benefactor. We cheer for someone who comes along and delivers us from the evils of the power-mongers who have oppressed us. And we happily bestow equal or more power on the newcomers, expecting them to look after us. And so we're willing to tolerate tyranny. Or, to be more precise, we are willing to create the conditions that lead to tyranny and centralized control.
George III did not hold all the cards. He could not ignore Parliament, and over time power shifted from him to the House of Commons, and to Bagehot's cabinet government. More recently, this has been overtaken by what I have labeled Crown government, with a much more powerful prime minister. So too, the former American Constitution, of a balanced separation of powers, has been overtaken by a Constitution of strong executive power, which I also see as a form of Crown government.
I have known Frank Buckley for several decades. We first met at the Canadian Law and Economics Association meetings. He was born in Canada and understands the parliamentary system. He now teaches law at George Mason University and understands the US-Congressional system.
His book is chock full of insight, along with considerable back-up data and references to substantiate his observations and insights. I was delighted that he asked me to look at an advance copy of the book.
I understand it, but too bad Frank misspelled "gubmnt".