PERFECTING DEMOCRACY:

Now entering its third season, complete with a new cast, The Crown is making even more explicit the idea that the monarchy is not merely a showpiece but an essential component of modern British democracy. Elizabeth is confronted by a new prime minister, Harold Wilson, the first Labour leader of her reign after more than a decade of Conservatives. She also faces figures within her own family who think the new, left-wing government poses a grave threat to the country's future. And she does what a constitutional monarch ought to do: nothing, more or less.

In the show, created and mostly written by Peter Morgan, the inherent absurdity of monarchy is part of its usefulness, part of its function as a tool that democratic societies may use to stay democratic. The military medals, the dresses, the sashes and scepters and crowns--they are all part of a sleight of hand to make the monarchy seem glorious, and in that glory, to create a sense of national stability. It's a part of what the English essayist Walter Bagehot called the "dignified" part of government, something that exists to humble the "efficient" elected part, to force ministers to remember that they serve the country, not simply their own parties and interests. In The Crown, the inherently undemocratic monarchy is a tool used to protect democracy.

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