Challenge: Make Monarchy be Considered Most Democratic Gov't

Make up a history that in 2015 monarchy, not just parliamentary gov't is considered the most democratic system in the West.


Bonus:
1) Make it a limited monarchy (the monarch having real power between the french president and the american president, and being expected to use it) seen as the most democratic.

2)Make the US a monarchy or monarchies.

3) Make it so state marriages still exist in 2015.



Most likely this is impossible challenge, but it will be fun to read if anyone can come up with a tl.
 
Well, a couple of starting points.

  • Presidential systems in North and Latin America break down faster, resutling in earlier "Presidents for Life." This serves to delegitimize republican governance as a method of achieving democracy.
  • "Enlightened Despotism" needs to be actually "enlightened," and have rulers actively try to meet the need of their subjects. Not sure if there's any particular political or economic force that could drive this behavior. Perhaps without parlimentary democracy being considered a solution, and with the onset of socialist thought and agitation, European monarchs are forced to adopt this behavior?
  • For point two, if you had various "Presidents for Life" in place, you could later a pro-monarchic revolution invite some European princeling to serve as ruler.
 
We can go the Star Wars route and have a Naboo style monarch where for some reason the monarch is elected to two four year turns and there's no age limit so even an 8 year old can get the job.
 
I think it's completely implausible in this forum. The US is too stable - not only has it remained democratic, but also it's never really come close to going the other way, contra It Can't Happen Here. Likewise, Switzerland. France came kind of close in the Depression, and had to have a coup in 1958 in order to let go of Algeria, but post-1900 it could never be either a constitutional monarchy or a stable autocratic republic.

I suppose you could weaken republicanism by having Germany adopt constitutional monarchy or something after WW1... but on the other hand, Germany's going from republic to Third Reich is one of the two big examples cited by modern-day monarchists for why republics are problematic (the other is Napoleonic France).

The one thing the US did have against it is that until about 1965, it was an apartheid state. But I'd argue that apartheid was on borrowed time: the post-Civil War political order and language ensured that once blacks got enough economic and cultural power, through the growth of post-Civil War generations, they'd be able to push through civil rights.
 
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