Philosophy of Code Geass: Monarchy vs Democracy

           For thousands of years the ancient civilizations of the world have lived under some form of monarchy, whether it was a benevolent king or a blood-thirsty warlord. They were absolute rulers who made all the decisions. Many countries in the present champion the cause for democracy where the burden of decision making is distributed between a group of many people for example Parliament and Congress, but here is the question, is democracy really better than monarchy? Monarchy isn’t so bad as long as there is a good, wise leader, and democracy is for a nation that has people who care about the many decisions that have to be made.

I realize that America is based on the idea of freedom. We fought wars over it countless of times from the Revolutionary war to the Iraq war. We have this deep sense of freedom and individuality ingrained into our very beings, that just talking about communism or monarchy terrifies us to death (the red scare). This is one of the biggest reasons why democracy works so well for us, but is democracy the best form of government?

Monarchy on the other hand is ideal for a more unstable or politically uneducated nation, where only one person rules. This may be beneficial because decisions can be made faster because only one person is making all the decisions and sometimes the ideas and decisions of one man can be better than the ideas and decisions of the majority. For example, back in the days of slavery, the majority of the population thought that slavery was alright, going as far as finding passages in the Bible stating that slavery was allowable (Exodus 22:2-3) but they were wrong (not the bible; the argument that slavery is moral). We now recognize that slavery is an immoral thing but back in the day the leading opinion was that slavery was alright. Thank goodness that some smart, compassionate leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. opened our eyes to the horrors of slavery and helped abolish it and segregation. I guess the biggest problem is how do you know that the person in office is trustworthy? In the monarchy system, the people can’t chose who the ruler will be, and if the public decides that the leader is unfit, they have to start a civil war and riot on the streets. This can prove dangerous because they may have to fight against the nation’s military that is under the rulers thumb. This is where democracy is superior to monarchy.

In democracy, people elect their rulers from a group of willing candidates. But the question now is will the willing candidates make good leaders. Socrates in The Republic by Plato states that an unwilling ruler is the best ruler because they will not abuse there office by having their own agenda that would benefit only themselves instead of the whole nation.

In a monarchy, the next ruler is predetermined. They are usually the child of the current ruler or a close relative. Because the nation already knows who will be the ruler, the child is taught from early childhood the qualities of being a good ruler. They are taught to put the good of the nation before themselves and how best to do that. They are given enormous responsibility at a young age so they gain experience in leadership. They are primped and preened into the ideal ruler. The current princes of England aren’t lazy couch-potatoes who just enjoy there palaces and extravagant parties. They are prominent leaders in society. In fact Prince William of Cambridge co-pilots a search and rescue helicopter helping ordinary civilian’s every day. This type of job is mandatory to a prince so they already have many accomplishments before they ascend the throne. Would this be a mandatory requirement for an elected official? Did President Obama ever go to war or help his citizens in a life-saving way?

In Code Geass, Emperor Charles is a tyrant. He conquered peaceful nations and brought them into the Holy Britannian Empire, a monarchy. His various children were raised to become leaders and generals to further the Britannian cause. Some like Schneizel, Cornelia, and Lelouch are raised to become military and political strategist while others like Odysseus, Clovis, and Nunnally are sent to be budding rulers or governors of Britannian colonies.  In a monarchy, the children of rulers are raised to be either rulers or people of political or military importance giving them more experience in leadership should one of them become the next emperor.

Briefly comparing the advantages and disadvantages of both democracy and monarchy I have come to that monarchy is the better form of government, but we should be able to overthrow the ruler easily in case they turn out to be a psychotic mass murder like Queen Mary I of England aka Bloody Mary.