[Glyptodon]

I don't really understand why power obsessed people don't seem to recognize that at some point retirement is graceful. (Thinking of Robert Mugabe, for example.)

[subway]

Fear that the new power won't overlook the misdeeds they (the old power) undertook while in power.

[neverminder]

I've heard someone say that Putin is at the same time the ruler and prisoner of Kremlin for exactly this reason.

[makmanalp]

I've read something that Yeltsin resigned to Putin in exchange for forgiveness, whatever that entails: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2

[Jach]

Lee Kuan Yew might be the best recent example of things done right. The trick is becoming responsibility-obsessed (though you might have to endure mischaracterizations of power-obsessed), so the real question is whether Xi is going to be responsible with power or not? The only metric I have as an outsider is overall country success. China's done very well over the past few decades, we'll see if it continues.

[AnimalMuppet]

"Power obsessed" is the answer to your own question, I think.

And it's not just because they enjoy power. It's more like riding a tiger. There is no time, ever, when it is safe to get off.

[tabtab]

Great analogy! Kudos.

[IntronExon]

If they were capable of thinking like that, they wouldn’t be in the position they were in. It must take a really incredible lust for power, and a very high opinion of oneself to be what amounts to a dictator in the first place.

Humble, sensible, rations, people don’t become the Mugabes of the world, in the same way that people who can measure rewards and risks don’t rob liquor stores.