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Monarchism vs Republicanism

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Monarchism vs Republicanism  

15 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you think is a better solution towards acheiving an Objectivist society?

    • Enlightened Absolutism
      2
    • Republicanism
      12


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Just thought that it would be an interesting topic to bring up.

The downside of monarchy is the matter of succession. Suppose your Enlightened Monarch begets a cretin for a son or daughter. Then what? Do we have a coup? Do we assassinate the Royal Idiot and start over? And what if the Enlightened Monarch becomes a tyrant. Do we have a revolution?

A periodic vote is much less disruptive than a revolution.

Bob Kolker

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Monarchy is fraught with such issues. What if the royal heir is intelligent and competent but would rather be a doctor, architect or musician than king? Do you want someone in power who resents being there? Is it fair to force any man into a career he doesn't want to follow?

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Marilyn vos Savant said: "There is no such thing as a benevolent dictator. If he were truly benevolent, he would not need to dictate."

Moreover, the very concept of the Benevolent Dictator as an unattainable ideal is a gross insult to humanity. It is premised on the idea that ideally we should be under the yoke but because we're allegedly unworthy creatures we'll just have to make do with the messiness of freedom. Feh. Thus I hold the advocates of this attitude in contempt.

JJM

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"Enlightened absolutism" is not synonymous with "monarchy" ; in fact, the former is a contradiction in terms. An absolute state (which can be a monarchy or a democracy) seeks to control every detail of the lives of its subjects; this is perfectly incompatible with the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Further, a monarchy need not be hereditary; Hungary's King Matthias, for example, was elected. And even if it is hereditary, it is not necessary that the monarch's son be the heir; instead, each monarch could choose his successor on the basis of character and fitness for the job.

The essential difference between a (hypothetical) capitalist monarchy and a capitalist republic is that in the former, a single person bears responsibility for the protection of individual rights (delegating his responsibilities in whichever way he sees fit) while in the latter, decisions are made by many people through constitutionally defined processes. This is far less of a difference than the difference between absolutism and a capitalist republic, or the difference between democracy and a capitalist republic.

(Note that many countries today, although monarchies or republics in name, are democracies in effect.)

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I actually meant to vote for republic as opposed to monarchy but I must of accedentally hit monarchy. However I didn't mean to refer only to monarchy, but rather enlightened absolutism or a really intelligent renaissance individual as monarch and not just some guy as king.

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Just thought that it would be an interesting topic to bring up.

I voted for enlightened absolutism. If I were king, I would cram freedom down their miserable throats no matter how hard they resisted, the stupid oafs. Anyway, I'm starting up a "Kulp for King" campaign. Care to make a campaign contribution?

Larry Kulp

Edited by Larry Kulp
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I would cram freedom down their miserable throats no matter how hard they resisted

"Oh, that?" said Dr. Pritchett. "But I believe I made it clear that I am in favor of it, because I am in favor of a free economy. A free economy cannot exist without competition. Therefore, men must be forced to compete. Therefore, we must control men in order to force them to be free."
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