Advantages and Disadvantages of Monarchy

Monarchy is a term used to define a government ruled by single person such as a king or queen. Monarchy involves a hereditary chain of command, which means only descendants or relatives of the king, queen, or emperor can take over power in the event of their death.

Just as in the democratic countries chain of command, the president is the commander in chief, and followed by the vice president, the secretary of the state, and then any of the cabinet members. Monarchy has a similar order to this chain of command, but it does not mean that a person is well suited for the ruling event if they are next in line for the monarchy or related to the reigning ruler.

The singularity of power of monarchy provides people with a focused and symbolic area for group identity and loyalty. However, the most obvious disadvantage of monarchy is that the nation’s power is at the hands of a single individual. The ruler is responsible for anything that may happen to the nation’s territory, economy, and people.

In Canada, the Queen is considered as the Governor General, but she is not responsible for governing the nation, nor has the power to enforce or make laws to that purpose. There is a separation of power there, with the parliament being elected by the masses. But, the queen or king is still the symbol of the nations or state’s President, but has limited functional power in the government. The definitions of monarchy vary from country to country. However, all of the examples of monarchy have a single ruler.

The Top 4 Advantages of Monarchy

1. There is only one person that will decide, so the decisions are made quickly and there are fewer arguments regarding the new policies to be imposed.

2. Monarchy reduces the heavy amount of expenditures of the nation in the elections as there is no need to elect the next ruler. The existing ruler will choose who his/her successor is.

3. The masses have great respect to their king or queen that an elected president as he/ she will rule for a term only.

4. Countries ruled by a monarch government have less corruption. Rulers know that their leadership is not for a term period, so they have no lust for money. They do not have the intentions to misuse their authority for corruption.

The Top 2 Disadvantages of Monarchy

1. In monarchy, a single person will rule the entire country as long as he/she lives. Therefore, the masses do not have the power to remove him/her from leadership even is he is not functioning according to the will of the masses.

2. A person who is aware that he/she will rule the country for the rest of his life does not take the responsibility to work for the betterment of his people seriously. He knows that he does not answer to anyone, which leads to economic disrupt.

Some countries that are still under monarchy are United Kingdom, Belgium, Andorra, Bhutan, Cambodia, Brunei, Denmark, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Kuwait, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, and Monaco.