Maybe you're right about that, Peter.

What do you think of the Dalai Lama's regime and those that preceded it in Tibet?

I think that many other types of regimes besides religious ones have proven equally incapable of admitting mistakes because their legitimacy likewise was unchallengeable by definition. Certainly this has been the case with pretty well every dictatorship that ever existed, whether or not it functioned under the definition of a "religious" administration. As for communism as practiced under the Soviets or the Maoists, I think it IS a state religion, albeit one that does not admit to a "God", but one that instead erects human and political gods in the place of spiritual ones.

As for non-dictators who must face a periodic vote which may vote them out of office...they very rarely admit their mistakes either, but usually go on believing they were right even after they've been turfed out of office. ;-) The saving grace is...they CAN be turfed out of office.

As you say "the only truly healthy political systems are ones that allow for mistaken regimes to be dethroned peacefully".