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To: x
In other words, the argument is that kings will behave as prudent investors, as bourgeois shareholders or rentiers

No, the libertarian argument is not about the character of the king at all. The argument is that his position -- as one who governs by birthright and cannot be legitimately ousted -- makes him favor rights, legality, peace, and stability. It doesn't mean that bad kings are impossible, it means that even bad kings are nudged in the right direction by the necessity to avoid a revolution, while even good politicians are nudged into the wrong direction by the necessity to get elected.

There is a valid moralistic argument for Christian monarchy as well -- based on the fact that the Church is the repository of the moral teaching and installs the king -- but I did not make that argument in the post you are responding to.

93 posted on 05/10/2005 4:14:51 PM PDT by annalex
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To: annalex
It's easy living in a republic to overestimate the vices of elected politicians and ignore the vices that kings and royal governments had in the real days of monarchy. What kings did to maintain their family income streams wasn't necessarily what their subjects regarded as being in their own best interest (and of course, some kings brought their countries close to ruin with their wars and extravagances). It took representative institutions to teach kings that the average person and his or her desires might have a value in their calculation.

Even bad kings are nudged in the right direction by the necessity to avoid a revolution, while even good politicians are nudged into the wrong direction by the necessity to get elected.

Unfortunately, insecurity of thrones can nudge bad kings to be even worse -- to become all the more oppressive in the fear that their power is threatened. This is a temptation that is less common in republics than in monarchies or dictatorships. For a public official to know that he will be out of office in four years isn't necessarily a bad thing.

A lot depends on the wider cultural context. Comparing monarchy under the best circumstances to representative governments under the worst circumstances is a crooked game.

98 posted on 05/10/2005 4:44:42 PM PDT by x
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