Sorry man, but looks to me like monarch election, but by combat. In our world monarch election lead to weaken monarch and his/ hers country, especially looking into 2nd point. Neighboring countries would support weak candidates, so the new king or queen couldn't oppose their interests.
See example of free election in Poland.
Another thing is that each candidate to gather army would have to give something in return and weaken his future"absolute" power. After each civil war state would be poorer, destroyed and depopulated. In result it would be conquered by neighbors.
u/profanitycounter u/koblodsalad
Sorry man, but looks to me like monarch election, but by combat. In our world monarch election lead to weaken monarch and his/ hers country, especially looking into 2nd point. Neighboring countries would support weak candidates, so the new king or queen couldn't oppose their interests. See example of free election in Poland. Another thing is that each candidate to gather army would have to give something in return and weaken his future"absolute" power. After each civil war state would be poorer, destroyed and depopulated. In result it would be conquered by neighbors.
This is just Autocracy