Leslie Wayne wrote about today’s monarchists:

• The International Monarchist League argues that countries should seriously consider a monarchy as an alternate form of government.
• Members of the League – sometimes the descendants of overthrown monarchs themselves – point out that statistically monarchies perform better than republics.
• Supporters of the ideas don’t want absolute monarchies. Instead they point to Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan, and the Netherlands as examples.
• They argue that monarchies provide stability, continuity, and unity. And contrast the chaos in American politics with Canada’s relative calm.
• Other examples abound. Even in the turbulent Middle East, the monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have fared much better than countries like Iraq and Iran.
• Monarchists gloss over the absence of basic freedoms in countries such as Brunei, Oman, Qatar, and Swaziland.
• Many of the more economically successful monarchies have been propped up by natural resources – especially oil. In a world more focused on renewables it’s unclear these political models are sustainable.
• And then there are all the examples of societies working very hard to fight off monarchies through revolutions – which are prone to repression and incompetence.

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