6 August

Dennis Altman, a republican, has come to question whether constitutional monarchies may actually be better than republics. This comes back to the stuff Gabriel Tarde said, that societies will always look to maximise strong, unified belief. If you don’t offer them that through royalty, they will invent much more dangerous populist versions of it themselves anyway. And this is the world we’re seeing right now, where presidents and other leaders are taking on all of the trappings of monarchy, without any of the checks and balances. Without Kings and Queens, we just get tyrants.