It_is_the_Darkness wrote on Aug 29
th, 2010 at 11:55am:
I stand corrected. But do they actually put it into practice?
As it only came into effect in 2009 and given Prince Frederick happens to be the first born of Margrethe II and his first born is a boy, I don't think Denmark will see a Queen by primogeniture for some time.
Monarchy (particularly constitutional monarchy) seems to satisfy the very human need of connection to history and continuity (perhaps a sense of transcending death).
It works extremely well when the Monarchy has a history of benignity and the reigning Monarch epitomises the national ethos, as with most extant European monarchies.
King Juan Carlos of Spain proved to the Spanish something far more important than continuity, namely defense of the state and democracy against all enemies without and (particularly) within, when Spanish generals attempted a coup d'état. Juan Carlos managed to send a televised message to the Spanish people demanding that Spain be returned to democracy. The coup collapsed the next day and the grateful Spanish credited their king with having single-handedly saved the nation.
Quote:the king interceded on television, in uniform as the Captain General of the Armed Forces (Capitán General de los Ejércitos), the highest Spanish military rank, to position himself against the insurgents, defend the Spanish Constitution and undermine the authority of Milans del Bosch. At that moment, the coup was taken to be a failure.
Foreign monarchies, however, will always suffer from a lack of authenticity, such as the British monarchy outside of Britain (and probably one day soon to be restricted to England when Scotland achieves full independence).
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