The following excerpt is from an alternate history novel. Can you critique the system of government described in the excerpt? What are the benefits? What problems might arise from this system? What could be improved? On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being an authoritarian dictatorship and 10 being a direct democracy, how democratic is this system?

"The country’s official name is: KINGDOM OF THE FRENCH (short form FRANCE; often cited as KINGDOM OF FRANCE, technically incorrect but still in common use)
The people are known as: FRENCHMEN and -WOMEN.
Capital and largest city: Paris (3.1 million)
Flag: A single large golden fleur-de-lys on a blue disc on a white field bordered in red.
Population: 51 million. 
Land area: ca. 5,667,000 sq. km
Economic ranking: Has been ranked at 1st in the world for much of the century but this position is increasingly precarious and debated, with some economists arguing for different metrics.
Form of government: Parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The legislature, the Grand-Parlement, is now entirely elected. Suffrage is property-based and (at least in theory) gender blind, with the property requirement having repeatedly been reduced over the past few decades both by deliberate policy and the action of inflation. All members of the armed forces and (more recently) the civil service also receive the right to vote automatically regardless of their wealth. The suffrage is now estimated to include approximately 75% of male and 20% of female citizens; French citizenship can be applied for by colonial subjects though the process is long-winded and expensive, and the majority of non-European descended French citizens obtained their citizenship by military or other government service. Service in the French East India Company does not automatically lead to citizenship but it is informally understood that five years’ service will result in citizenship being awarded. All citizens regardless of property have the right to vote for the Parlements-Provincial (which have also been created in Pérousie, and similar but more informal institutions exist in French India). In theory, the King of the French has the power to appoint and dismiss Prime Ministers as well as summon and dissolve the Grand-Parlement, but in practice these days these powers are rarely invoked and usually only on the advice of the party leaders. The King is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but in times of national peril the Constitution allows for the creation of a Dictateur who will temporarily wield extraordinary power by agreement of the King and all the major party leaders.
Foreign relations: For centuries France’s primary foreign policy goal has simply been to dominate the European continent, and despite setbacks under Louis XV and the Revolutionary governments, at the end of the nineteenth century that goal has seldom looked more plausible. Spain has a French king and she and her neighbours have been brought into the French sphere, while Great Britain has been consumed with her own problems since the Jacobin Wars, as has Austria/Danubia to a lesser extent. Only a united Germany and a modernised Ottoman Empire have posed a serious threat to French ambitions, and the former has proved much less of a rival than mid-century French politicians feared. French concerns are increasingly more about the rise of large non- or only partly-European based nations with access to vast natural resources which, combined with industrialisation, would allow them to overtake France’s ‘natural position’ of dominance: America, the UPSA, Russia, and to a lesser extent Feng China. French rhetoric therefore often focuses on the idea of France as the natural leader of the world in pushing for international policy agreements.
Military: The privileged position the French armed forces acquired after the Popular Wars , coupled to France not having been involved in many major conflicts since the Great American War, has slightly sapped the capabilities of what was once the greatest military power in the world. However, this factor is rather weaker than France’s enemies would like to believe and France continues to lead the world in many military innovations, as well as training the armed forces of several overseas powers such as Persia and the Matetwa Empire. The French Navy is probably the second largest and most capable in the world behind that of the Empire of North America, although this is subject to debate due to disagreements over how to count the French East India Company’s vessels (and similarly for Russia and the RLPC).
Current head of state: King Louis XVIII (House of Bourbon) (since 1871)
Current head of government: Prime Minister Napoleon Leclerc (National Party) (since 1895)"