Romans had a pretty good system.

I guess it helped that their armies and senates were intertwined.

Great idea whose time has come again! How many wars do you think we would have today if the people who declared them would have to fight in them?

 

Hmmmm... Interesting idea.

I would guess that if the practice continued then we would probably find ourselves in a very different world. With all involved in warfare, we would probably find ourselves divided into two or three very big empires.

A British empire, a French empire and a Chinese/Russian empire.

I would guess that the US would not exist, as the major reason for its independence was political. It would be part of the British empire.

However... I would see each empire remaining at peace. An uneasy freindship, but the losses would be too great for any side to do anythnig otherwise.
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However, should the practice become re-introduced, then I would see politicians worm their way out of it anyway.

Remember though, that (at least the British) monarchy are still very involved with front line duty. Recently, the Queen's husband, HRH Duke of Edinburgh was a captain in the navy during ww2. Prince Andrew saw service in the Falklands conflict as a SAR pilot, Prince Harry was an infantry soldier in Afghanistan until becomming an Apache pilot, and the Duke of Cambridge (Prince William) is also a SAR pilot.

I assume you are talking about politicians, as the Royal family have a superb history of service.

 

The brits have a way of turning warriors into politicians, though lately it has been more authors and artists.

 

It's because we are all so clever. We can all multi-task.

 

That is why I like reading the books about old empires, where the ruler was the soldier, at least to some extent. Not a talking head. You can actually trace through how power was transferred from the government to the banks all over the world. The US and second world war were the final nail. Otherwise I also thin the world would have been split up between Britain, France and China/Russia would have had to find some suitable solution...