Bhutan's Democratic Transition

A story about how Bhutan's King voluntarily gave up power to establish democracy, despite his people's resistance.

"One of the very few cases where someone in power gives it up - they had a king and he voluntarily said 'you know what, this could just go to my son but we need a democracy.'

The funny thing is, the people there were like 'No no king, stay king!' He's like 'No no, we need a democracy.' They're like 'Democracy? You see India is a democracy, Pakistan is a democracy - look at those places, they're always at war, it's violent. Forget democracy, we don't want it, we're happy.'

And he was like 'Well, if I just keep giving this power down by birth, this won't end well.' It's actually really noble and unique because nobody wants to give up power. Biden didn't want to give up power, Trump doesn't want to give up power - power is one of the most addictive things in the world.

What makes it even more remarkable is that he voluntarily went to democracy at a time of peace, which is not usually what happens. Usually, democracy happens after a time of violence or war when people need change, or when a western country comes in and tries to force democracy on them."