Is republic better than monarchy?

[FlatAssembler]

So, a few months ago, Aemilia Sophia and I had a debate on Discord about whether a republic is better than monarchy. Aemilia Sophia and me have a lot in common. Both of us are Latin language lovers, both of us struggle with a psychotic disorder and take Risperidone for it, and both of us are anarchists. Aemilia Sophia is an anarcho-syndicalist while I am an anarcho-capitalist. So we agree that anarchy would be better than both republic and monarchy. However, which is better, republic or a monarchy?

My arguments for monarchy being better than a republic are:
1. Short-term rulers in a republic do not tend to be aware of, or at least do not tend to care about, the long-term consequences of their policies. Monarchs would be on power their whole life, and their children will also be on power, so they would probably be aware of and care about long-term consequences of their policies.

Hmm... I am not sure that's [republicanism] a good idea. Short-term rulers in republic do not tend to care about long-term results of their policies.

2. Empirically, we see that life in monarchies is better than life in republics.

And yet many people here [in Croatia] would kill to be able to move to Norway [Norway being a monarchy, and Croatia being a republic].

Free speech seems to really be quite good in Nordic countries [which are mostly monarchies, rather than republics]. I mean, the Danish Study arguing that masks do not work probably could not be published in the midst of a pandemic in most countries [Denmark being a monarchy].

But Norway was one of the countries that did the best in COVID-19. It had no excess mortality in 2020 at all, if I am not mistaken. A lot better than Croatia, which had 17% excess mortality.
Sweden also did pretty well. It had only around 2% excess mortality, if I am not mistaken.
All Nordic countries did well [primarily because they were investing heavily in healthcare before the pandemic, unlike Croatia where hospitals were already overwhelmed before the pandemic].

Aemilia Sophia's argument against monarchy is that rulers in monarchy do not actually care about the results of their policies as long as they do not cause a violent revolution. Rulers in a republic have to care about something other than just a violent revolution.

And yet they are better than monarchs, who only care about their policies as far as it doesn’t get them beheaded. The president must also be afraid of a bad electoral turnout, not just a violent revolution (though, of course, that too)

I was wondering what you think.

[The Grand Nudger]

Even if you're not at all concerned about the representation of people...the main problem with a monarchy remains - that it can only be as good, and will always be at least as bad, as a single mans decisions.

[FlatAssembler]

Even if you're not at all concerned about the representation of people...the main problem with a monarchy remains - that it can only be as good, and will always be at least as bad, as a single mans decisions.

A monarchy does not need to be an absolute monarchy. It can be democratic, just like Nordic countries or the UK are. Not all monarchies are like the Monarchist Yugoslavia from the 1930s.

[The Grand Nudger]

Once we start adding caveats, we can apply the same to either form, sure...but the caveats themselves do seem to suggest that we see and understand that problem with the form. Republics, for example, distribute that risk...but only a hair more widely - in practice. If, however, our caveats for one have the effect of more closely approximating the other...well. Point is seemingly made. The one can be ok insomuch as it replicates the effect of the other. If, meanwhile the other replicating the effect of the one amounts to all of the ways it's seen to be failing.....The other, then, is the superior.

Simply (likely to be unrepresentatively so) we assess forms of government based on whether they produce more or less of a set of disfavored outcomes. We left monarchies (insomuch as we have and where we have)..because they just weren't working for us. I can see some hypothetical monarchy outperforming all other forms, and working harder and better for us than other forms - but that hypothetical monarchy doesn't seem to be represented often, if ever, by a monarchy-in-reality. It's the mythical benevolent totalitarian dictatorship that every despot invokes in their own bids to be dictator.

Can you think of any examples of that hypothetical monarchy in history?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The question as asked is too broad to answer. Which form of monarchy? Which form of republic?

Boru

[Woah0]

Even if you're not at all concerned about the representation of people...the main problem with a monarchy remains - that it can only be as good, and will always be at least as bad, as a single mans decisions.

What about Constitutional Democracies? Scandinavia, Japan... i could go on. Sure there is bad ones like Saudi Arabia, but thats only because of Absolute Monarchy which gives full power to the royals and not to a democratically elected prime minister.
But i take it its religious reasons for that, same way Vatican City is because of holy people.

Then there is North Korea, which doesnt have a king but the leader is worshipped like one with full power.

I think Americans hate Monarchy not because of absolutism in it, but because of revolutionary war history in the past. So historical patriotism i think is reason why so many Americans hate monarchy, not so much logical reasoning behind it

[The Grand Nudger]

Constitutional democracies, what about them? Are they good at some things and Not Great, Bob, at others? Yeah. I also think that americans are constitutionally( I'm here all week) opposed to monarchies and have cultural reasons to feel a certain way about them. Still, however people might feel about x, x is better or worse at producing some set of outcomes. Americans have a dim view of monarchy, and that's a fact about americans. Monarchy has a dim track record in history, and that's a fact about monarchies.

[Woah0]

Constitutional democracies, what about them?  Are they good at some things and Not Great, Bob, at others?  Yeah.  I also think that americans are constitutionally( I'm here all week) opposed to monarchies and have cultural reasons to feel a certain way about them.  Still, however people might feel about x, x is better or worse at producing some set of outcomes.  Americans have a dim view of monarchy, and that's a fact about americans.  Monarchy has a dim track record in history, and that's a fact about monarchies.

Well interms of USA the voting system is bad, because you have indpendent backers that can just get any random person to show up and be president. As compared to representatives of political parties, which overall is more serious and makes more sense to represent political issues which is more a thing in Europe. Its why there is so much bully culture from both Democrats and Republicans and media is pitying one side against the other for this reason, its just the way Americans live which is fight like a WWE show and not trying to make it better for people who live there. Despair is the main problem for many of them

But as for the monarchy thing. I get some dont like it here either, due to tax money reasons. I guess i like it though due to symbolic part of it, its just kinda interesting to me. Absolute monarchy i dont like however though.

[Angrboda]

I can see one advantage, which is also a disadvantage. Democracies move slowly, which is both a help and a hindrance. Have a monarch who in theory can exercise plenary power can potentially alleviate the problem of reacting too slowly when needed. However, this is also a disadvantage as such powers can be abused such as Trump and Biden invoking emergency powers to accomplish goals not demanded by the emergency. And there's also the unfortunate effect that, if such mechanisms exist, politicians will seek to create emergencies, or the appearance of them, to do likewise.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

If I had my druthers, I'd like to see a large-scale experiment in direct democracy. We've seen dictatorial monarchies on a massive scale, and their record is not good.

Boru