I conjecture there is a connection between the strength of the "state as parent" structuring metaphor, strong executives, tryanny, and war.

Take it further: Part of civilizing (quite literally) our minds is weakening the strength of this metaphor. The fact that classical liberalism—based on the metaphor of the merchant/consumer relationship—cannot be fitted into the Lakovian schema is evidence of its of its psychological foreignness, but moral superiority.

— Will Wilkinson, The State as Parent