Among humankind’s many bad ideas, the monarchy was hardly the worst. And it was certainly one of the most inevitable. We humans have an inherent inclination to place our confidence in a dominant strongman, a chief, shaman, pharaoh, czar, rajah, emperor or king or, sometimes, queen. Hierarchy comes more naturally to us than egalitarianism. In fact, democracy has always been the rare exception. The ancient Greek city-states dabbled in democracy, but they confined it to homegrown, property-owning men. Women, slaves and foreigners were out of luck. Our own democracy — again, a historical rarity — …