ASOIAF: What principle does each character follow while chasing power or ruling the realm?

For example Cersei believes that army or violence is the key which should be used on all her enemies;
Dragon mother believes that being kind to people and abolishing slavery will gain the throne.

Ned Stark don't know how to play the game and died quickly in the game.

Note: for the sake of brevity I limited this only to kings and queens(and Tyrion because it inspired me.) So obviously this list is incomplete.

What makes a king a king? What is the underlying philosophies between the various rulers and brokers of power in A Song of Ice and Fire? What gives them the right?

• Joffrey Baratheon: Power is Power:

art by Magali Villeneuve

• Believes in absolute authority for the king for no reason other than birthright. Subjects and the realm exists for him and him alone.
   While its not articulated , he seems to basically equate kingship with godhood. Basically, to steal a line from the show, a line I hated in it's context but which I think explains Joffrey's philosophy well: power is power.
• Stannis Baratheon: Law is Power.

• Law law law. The King is King because of the Rule of Law. Plain and simple. King is there to administer law, to adjudicate law and to defend the realm. By defending the realm he can demonstrate that he is the Rightful king not only legally but morally.

• Renly: Popularity is power and Might makes Right.

• He looks good in the crown and he has got the biggest army. That's essentially Renlys claim; and he says exactly that to Catelyn. Nothing more, nothing less. Robert won his crown with his hammer. Renly will win his with his huge army. Precedent be damned, he looks GOOD in gold.

• Robb Stark: Support is power.

• Robb is very much a direwolf wagged by his own tail. His lords made him king, and his lords can unmake him and he knows it.. Otherwise he seems to have instincts to lead by example: he leads his armies personally and he tries to rectify his lapses personally.
• Balon Greyjoy: Brutality is power. Seize the the day and screw the future.

art by Amok

• Balon is out for short-term pleasure and power. he takes what he can without asking and relishes it. Eat, drink and make merry, me hearties, for tomorrow, ahhhh....screw it.
• Mance Rayder: Persuasion, reason, strength: Leadership is power

• Mance gained his power the hard way. He charmed; he begged; he cajoled; he reasoned; he asked nicely; he wrote number one hits;  he kicked ass in combat. In the end he had united the entire North Beyond-the-Wall, into a loose confederation of many peoples and cultures in an attempt to save their lives.
• Daenerys: Fire and Blood is Power.

• I reject the idea that Daenerys's philosophy is about her care for her people. Oh, sure, she cares, don't get me wrong. But that's not what's going to win her her throne and she knows it. She knows that the way to the throne is paved with corpses. And she will have them.

Tyrion: Technocratic competence is power.

• Yes, Tyrion is played a little bit. By Littlefinger and various. Still he displays a lot of competence in his months as Acting Hand in King's Landing:
• He does what he can to keep King's Landing fed, opening the King's Wood for general hunting.
• He sponsors the deal that will create the Great Western Alliance between the Reach and the Riverlands through marriage. (Littlefinger's idea, but still.)
• He keeps Dorne out of war with the betrothal of Myrcella to Trystane.
• He has the boom chain made, including the construction of the winch towers.
• He concocts a series of defenses using wildfyre, making sure that the men wielding it are properly drilled and trained.
• He clears the riverbank of excess buildings, preventing Stannis' army from easily broaching the walls.
• He commandeers several merchant ships for an impromptu navy.
• Of course in the process he pisses everybody off at him. Public relations are not his strongpoints. they're Margaery's.
• Margaery Tyrell: Love of the people is Power.

• No doubt about it, this beautiful young lady from the cradle of chivalry has the common touch. She gives out alms and food to the starving, stressed population of King's Landing, almost instantly  neutralizing the powder keg that killed Ser Preston Jacobs(the King's Guard), eradicated Tyrek 'baby-lovin' Lannister and saw Lollys Stokeworth raped half-a-hundred times.
• No one cares that it was her family that blockaded the city and casued the starvation in the first place. That's charisma.

Written Fri March 11