Monarchy and Democracy this Month

We bring you some quotes from this month.

Over at the American Conservative, writes Mr. Daniel Larison:

The core of democratic peace theory as I understand it is that democratic governments are more accountable to their populations, and because the people will bear the costs of the war they are going to be less willing to support a war policy. This supposedly keeps democratic states from waging wars against one another because of the built-in electoral and institutional checks on government power. One small problem with this is that it is rubbish.

Writes Ad Orientem:

In general as long as one refrained from treason and sedition or overtly trying to undermine the established church, paid your taxes (which in most monarchies were a pittance by today's democratic standards), and refrained from those crimes against persons and property that are universally proscribed in any orderly society, you were very likely to be left alone. Point in fact, many people went through their entire lives with little or no contact with the government.

Historically governments in monarchies were almost always much smaller than those which exist in today's enlightened democratic world. The influence of the Imperial Russian Autocracy on the ordinary lives of its hundred million or more subjects was minimal. Most historians of pre-revolutionary Russia argue that the country was ridiculously under-governed.

Writes Mr. Theodore Harvey over at his weblog Royal World:

The much-maligned Kingdom of Egypt (1922-53) was a golden age for Egyptian Christians (descendants of the original Egyptians) who were safer then than they have ever been since.

Writes the Mad Monarchist:

It was recently announced that the monarchist party “National Hope” will be banned from participating in the upcoming elections next month. Parties advocating monarchy are not allowed in Greek elections. There are plenty of republicans in the monarchies of the world (unfortunately) and many even get elected to office, but in republics it seems a monarchist, unlike the devil, will not be heard.

Radical Royalist has more on the Greek issue.