King For a Day

One common question that people ask is what you would do if you were king for just a day.  A king is a hereditary monarch, so we would say that if you are king for just a day you really haven't done a very good job. If you had, you would retain power for more than just one day.

Kings usually fall into two categories absolute monarchs and constitutional monarchs.  The latter are limited in their authority.  Usually they will set up some kind of parliament that actually holds most of the actual political power.  Another kind of monarch is called a dictator.  This is someone who has usually obtained political power by force, although strictly speaking this is not the definition.  Hitler was rightfully called a dictator even though he obtained that position through an enabling act of the German parliament.  What separates a king from a dictator is that the king generally inherits political power.  Although it may be the case that some men have been called kings even though they were elected, we can take this as a definition for the purpose of this post.

Some political scientists have pointed out that dictators have done a better job of keeping themselves in power than democratically elected leaders.  However, we should point out that some kings have held power even longer than that.  A monarchy can last longer than a lifetime.  It can be passed down from one generation to the next.  Perhaps if we are concerned about the human rights abuses of dictators we would do better to look into this form of government.  If we are going to try to get dictators to submit to elections we are expecting them to act contrary to their own political best interest.  It is no wonder that this approach is not likely to be very successful.

Imagine how much more success we would have if we were to suggest that they set up some form of constitutional monarchy.  This would enable them to continue indefinitely, passing political power down to the next generation.

Generally the places where democracy doesn't do well are those where there is a rich, powerful elite that would stand to gain by political repression.  The political repression serves to block the redistribution of wealth or income.  Thus a successful monarch would want to set up a constitution that would fit the local conditions.

Successful political systems are set up to function for much more than one day.  No system will give a single individual complete and total control over a society to be used as he chooses.  A monarch needs support if he is to stay in power.