Seriously, a metric ton of science fiction seem to hate it– usually they go back to some form of monarchy (Prince of Sparta, from Jerry Pournelle), or an oligarchy with the strong men making hard decisions(tm), and in fact it’s very, very rare that we see democratic or republican forms of government portrayed in a positive light, either they’re incompetent, corrupt, power hungry, or some combination of all three.

Which is pretty odd when you consider the real world track record of oligarchies, monarchies, etc. The Strong man on the white horse in both Russia and Germany lead their nations to utter ruin– in the course of a devastating war in the case of Germany, while after a long economic decline in the case of Russia. Meanwhile, the United States, Great Britain, Australia etc, keep plugging along– in fact if you look at longevity and over all well being, they far, FAR outmatch the other forms of government.

And yet, to read much of Science Fiction, you’d think that democracy, or even a republic with an unlimited franchise, has never worked.

Which is very odd, because I can think of a lot of places I’d like the world to go in the future– but back to the days when you had to bow your head to some happy sociopath with a fixation on the purity of his blood that had his family tree crossing a few too many times….

Well that ain’t exactly my idea of the future I want.

PS: Charlie Stross in The Merchant Princes Series does a damn good job of showing just how ugly this sort of nobility oriented society can be.