In any society, the right to authority is derived from some origin
everyone understands: education, bloodlines, swords in lakes. What gives
the people who run the place the right to run it? Why are the leaders
the leaders?

More importantly, how well does the gatekeeping work? Do the steps
for choosing leaders in a society put it on a path to peace, power, and
prosperity? If everyone who runs Freedonia gets to hold a position of
authority because she found a magic dingleberry on the hidden path, does
finding a magic dingleberry on the hidden path demonstrate that a
person has consistent and effective forms of practical knowledge?

In China, for many centuries, the path to authority ran through
fields of formal knowledge and written exams. Good Confucian scholars
ran local matters, really good Confucian scholars ran regional matters,
and scholars who crushed their exams on Confucian principle took up
their places as national administrators. A great bureaucrat was a great
soul, deeply read and greatly inclined to sophistication in art,
literature, and cuisine. It was expected that a capable vice-prefect,
for example, would also be an exquisite poet.

Our Culture War Is Between Results And Empty Credentials