PERFECTING THE REPUBLIC:

The most powerful attraction of monarchy today is leadership above politics, which is something that a critical mass of the body politic can rally around. Tory, Labor, and Liberal Democrat can all support the British monarchy because it has largely been above politics. 

Modern European monarchies survive because of the distinction between the offices of head of state (the crown) and head of government (prime minister, or equivalent). Working British royals rarely comment upon legislation being debated in the House of Commons or initiatives pursued by government ministers. Rather, they visit hospitals and schools and visit the nations of the British Commonwealth (over which they reign) on goodwill tours. 

The strength, then, of monarchy comes from the embodiment of the body politic in the ruler. The peasantry of old were, for this reason, the most royalist cross-section of European society. When asked by a Western journalist what Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary believed to be his most important responsibility, he replied, "To protect my people from their government." 

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