Plato had some very good arguments against democracy that everyone today just seems to ignore. I particularly like the sweet shop owner versus the doctor parable he used. But the problem with the “good monarch” idea is that once you accept the concept of the divine right of kings you’re not guaranteed good monarchs. Look at Rome where they had nearly a century of good times under the five good emperors, but then they got Commodus. There’s also the problem with transfers of power in monarchies - because governments are regularly changed in democracies you don’t end up with the regular civil wars every time a monarch falls off their perch and the pretenders to the crown spend possibly decades fighting over succession. That kind of instability is good for nobody, and can occur no matter how stable things were when the monarch was still alive. The Mongolian empire is an example of how even when you manage to avoid civil conflict succession can be ruinous in monarchies, because the monarch was the empire made flesh when they were alive.

Sounds a bit Wakandan to me! I have no problem with the British monarchy really, I just don’t have any interest. I do find the divine right of kings to be an absurd notion in this day and age though, but it’s not like the Brits are the only ones in Europe that still practice it. I think the interest in British royalty from people who are otherwise staunch republicans in places like Ireland and America very strange though; I can’t imagine the French are similarly awed with the Spanish monarchy.

Nah I have faith in our electoral system and controls. It’s the voters I've lost faith in.