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Monday 1 December 2008

The Founding Fathers rejected hereditary kingship, but a penchant for ‘the rule of one’, the classic definition of monarchy, has had a recurring echo in the United States. Most Americans assume that democratic principles fit uncomfortably with monarchy, which they have been brought up to associate with tyranny. They forget that monarchies are today among the most advanced democracies. The suggestion that their President is an elective king and the United States a ‘monarchical republic’ makes them uneasy. American historians, well aware of the monarchical elements in the Constitution, have typically pulled their punches, often on the grounds that a President, however regal, serves for a limited term. They forget that monarchy does not require life tenure or the hereditary principle. As Hamilton, another Founding Father favorably disposed to kingship, remarked: ‘monarch is an indefinite term. It marks not either the degree or duration of power’. Frank Prochaska

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