To answer your Tolkien-unrelated but interesting question, it would seem to me that God has a dim view of kings! After all, when the Israelites demanded a king, didn't Samuel warn them of all the bad things that would happen? And since I'm a stickler for semantics, I might add that a democracy is "mob rule", where the whole people decide every issue, and not practical on a large scale. What we practice is a representative republic, not a democracy. Which is why this site is called "Free Republic".
I'll be back for real Tolkien talk after second breakfast.
Yes, but remember the ending of the previous book of the Bible, Judges, in which after describing how the tribe of Benjamin had almost been destroyed due to its evil and perverted ways, it says 'In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.' This was not meant as praise. It seems that the people of Israel were no longer fit to live in a non-monarchical state.
Well, yes and no, it would seem.
The NIV study notes point out that Moses anticipated the people's desire for a king (Dt. 17:18-20) and that in the book of 1 Samuel, God both commands Samuel to appoint a king and condemns the people's desire for a king as sinful. The resolution to the tension, according to the same notes, seems to be that it was God's will to give the people a king who behaved in obedience to the covenant. The people, however, wanted a king so they could be like the surrounding nations--someone who would give them the security they should have drawn from God's covenant.
I think it's reasonable to say that the kings of Isreal were ideally reflections of the Great King to come. So perhaps God objects to what people tend to make of flawed, human kingship--not the institution itself.
That being said, until the return of the King, I am bound and determined to hang on to republican government. It seems to have a better track record given the current state of human nature.