The Importance Of Tradition

In Thailand, there is an electoral logjam and the one institution which could normally keep things flowing—the monarchy—is incapable of handling this task, as the current king is likely too old and frail to do anything.  As Wretchard points out, tradition can sometimes be the thing that saves your bacon.  Traditions exist as cultural solutions to societal problems.  Nowadays, the idea of losing political parties (and politicians) gracefully exiting the stage and waiting until the next election is a standard in American politics, but before this tradition was established, there were legitimate doubts that the Federalists would give up power to the Democrats in 1800.  Thankfully, they did, but there certainly was no guarantee that this would occur.