The times., 1898-07-31
may have been hasty in rejectineD the
very idea of an elective monarrhy as


very idea of an elective monaTT5y as
Is it really true that our system of
government is an elective monarchy?
Ask this question of almost any stu
dent of political science and the chances
are that he will answer it with prompt
affirmative. The Chief of State in this
country differs from rulers in acknowl-
edgedly monarchical nations, in that
his office and person are not surround
ed with the pomp and circumstance OF
royalty. Because they are not. and the
world, through long habit has associ
ated crowns, scepters. lord chamber
lains and an idea of the divinity that
doth hedge king with the sovereign
himself it is difficult to picture per-
sonal ruler who, although possessed of
the power and perogatives of the Car
or Kaiser. in most outward aspects
does not differ from the general run of
well-to-do citizens about him.
But when the President of the United
States is subjected to close pei teal an
alysis, it is readily seen that in all es-
sentials he is as much a personal ruler
as, to say the least. any of the constitu-
tiOnal sovereigns of the Old World.
Compared with the Queen of England
he is almost an absolute monarch. Peo-
pie may criticise his public acts and
question a limited selection of his mo-
tives without going to Jail for lese
majestic, as would happen in Germany,
but. on the other hand. the individual
viii of Wilhelm II, though eXerted per-
haps with more display of authority,
has no greater potency in determining
governmental policies or acts than has
that of the American President Even
the Car. in theory an irresponsible
despot, is in fact so bound down by
custom, precedent and the inherited
policies and traditions of his house and
the Russian nobility and church that
while he presents all the exterior ap-
pearances of absolutism, in fact his
personal power is distinctly limited.
Queen Victoria is a ruler in name
only. For all practical purposes she is
nothing more than a gilded figurehead
on the ship of state. In her kingdom
the aphorism is proverbial: THE
queen reigns, but does not govern"
Constitutionally she is endowed with
the veto power. as our President is; but.
practically. it is only a fiction, for she
dare not use 1T. In Great Britain and
in other constitutional monarchies, the
actual imperial power inheres in the
parliament. In the United States more
of il is vested in the Executive than in
any other civilized country, Russia
perhaps excepted.
1t does not matter that the exercise Of
this power is cloaked with nominally
popular forms and referred to in Ian
guage calculated to deceive. 1t is an
existent fact. all the same One Eng
lish newspaper has not inaptly de-
scribed the Chief Magistrate Of the
Western Republic as a ''QuadrenniaI
despot-" In effect he is nearly that if
he chooses so to make himself. He is
a legislative as we'll as an executive
quantity. His prerogative gives him a
voice in Congress equivalent to the diff
ference between a bare majority capa-
BILE of enacting legislation and the two
| thirds vote in both houses necessary to
override his veto. Political patronage
and the power an administration wields
over vast interests OF capital, industry
and commerce, because of its ability to
| promote or depress them by govern
mental action, is generally sufficient to
| do the rest.
Thus, even in times of peace, the
| President is a powerful exponent OF
elective monarchy. When the nation
is at war his power as Commander-in-
Chief is hardly limited. Then, if it ac-
cords with his sense of duty or neces-
sity he may assume absolute master
ship, and often has done So "as a war
measure" in certain instances. We ara
much inclined to think that the London
| Spectator is not far from being right
when it calls the American system OF
government an elective monarchy.