Why the Monarch matters

Phillip Blond Director, ResPublica think tank, had a radio essay on the BBC. He argued that the Monarch has an important, continuing and foundational role in contemporary politics.

Here are his main points in favour of the Constitutional Monarchy as we enjoy it in Australia:

A king is a person vested with ruling and sovereign authority over land and people. He is a single personage with the right to rule over the nation.

There is a difference though between the power expressed by the monarch and that held by the prime minister. Initially we might think that the prime minister represents the democratic process. That he or she is a check on the absolute and arbitrary claims of the king.

But in reality the reverse is the case.

Does not the ideal monarch stand for a higher good and a deeper principle than that of the politician? Indeed by personifying the nation, the monarch holds politicians and democratic politics to a higher standard.

The King or Queen in seeking to stand for all members of the national commonwealth saves us from extremism and the righteous fundamentalism of those who believe only in their beliefs.

What I am beginning to suggest here is the paradox that democracy itself is not enough to ensure the continuation of democracy.

Unless we have powers that represent other interests than that of a temporary and often manipulated majority, we will be dominated by the contest for electoral superiority, and determined by the unlimited rule of those who win.

Monarchy helps to sustain the democratic process by mixing a power other than that of democracy with democracy.

And in this respect, mixed constitution - the combination of the rule of the many, the few and the one - is more effective than the division of powers in preventing elected tyranny.

Monarchy - the rule of the one - acts as a kind of umpire which ensures that the democratic process itself cannot cannot be subverted and that it displays a certain rule of fairness. In short the monarch upholds the rule of law.

Thus of some 40 constitutional monarchies in the world, 16 of which recognise the Queen as sovereign, all have clearly observed constitutional procedures.

Constitutional monarchies also comprise some of the world's most developed, wealthy, democratically accountable and progressive states.

According to the UN, seven of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of quality of life are constitutional monarchies.

Certain inherited institutions: the king, the lords and the church, representing the one, the few and the transcendent; stood guard over the notion of the objective good and the common good.

So to defend democracy, we need more than democracy.

Were we to abolish or further limit the power of the British monarch therefore, we would remove the very lynchpin that has secured our British liberties, equities, social mobility and sense of economic justice over hundreds of years.

You can hear a longer version of this essay via the BBC iPlayer.