a world without monarchy?: all articles

The monarchy invokes nostalgia, radicalism, and the pain of loss. Adam Zamoyski reconnects Polish history with European enlightenment. For Shusha Guppy, the Persian tradition contains the wisdom of just rule, while Nushin Arbabzadeh contrasts Afghan plainness, Iranian glamour and English serenity. Denis Safrany is realistic about Belgian chances of survival; Solana Larsen feels the pull of affection in Denmark; Natasha Twal laments Jordan’s king; and Misaki Kamouchi sees women breathing new life into Japanese tradition. Tom Nairn sees the British Queen’s jubilee as a people’s farewell, and Sulak Sivaraksa contrasts Buddhist principles with modern practice in Thailand.
Monday 24th June

The spirit of Persian monarchy

Shusha Guppy, 24 June 2002
Firdowsi’s epic, “The Book of Kings”, is even more than a great product of Persian civilisation. In conveying the essence of kingship as divinely ordained yet conditional on just and protective rule, the principles of the millennium-old epic still have the power to move – and convince.
Sunday 23rd June

Monarchy and Mana: New Zealand must think outside the box

Joop Teernstra, 23 June 2002
Like Australia, New Zealand is questioning the role and need for its antipodean Monarchy.
Thursday 30th May

Serbia: monarchy and national identity

Dejan Djokic, 30 May 2002
Political change in Serbia includes the revival of monarchist ideas. But the version of Serbian history they entail is contested.
Monday 27th May

The Japanese emperor and the World Cup

Hirotada Shimura, 27 May 2002
The Emperor will not attend the opening ceremony, but will he be cheering at the final?
Sunday 26th May

England: letting go

Peter Davidson, 26 May 2002
The real distance between Denmark and England lies not in the status of monarchy, but in the core of their national identity.

Monarchy breeds division

Laura McMenemy, 26 May 2002
Monarchy? We're not very far down the civilised road.

Britain: apex of the class system

David E. Flavell, 26 May 2002
People at the sharp end of class division are less favoured by ‘stability’.

Britain: not just mind, but heart

Pam Jarvis, 26 May 2002
The influence of monarchy on British life is a matter of warm emotion as well as cool reason.
Wednesday 22nd May

The party is over

Tom Nairn, 22 May 2002
The British monarch’s golden jubilee is the festival of nostalgia of a decaying state. But within the ceremonies of farewell lies the hunger for a revived democracy.

Poland: royal memories in the heart of Europe

Adam Zamoyski, 22 May 2002
If the proposed constitutional monarchy of the Enlightenment period had been allowed to succeed, Europe’s entire historical course might have been altered.

Japan: from the divine to the human

Misaki Kamouchi, 22 May 2002
The courtiers may resist change, but new life is entering the Japanese royal family.
Monday 20th May

Thailand: a return to the ideal?

Sulak Sivaraksa, 20 May 2002
The idea of righteous kingship has an honourable role in Thai history and religious tradition. A respected social critic says that today, reform is necessary if the institution is to live up to its best ideals.
Sunday 19th May

Constitutional monarchy: better than the alternative

M.M. Eskandari-Qajar, 19 May 2002
Iranian and Austrian experience suggests to this observer that the argument for constitutional monarchy against republicanism is most convincing on pragmatic grounds.

Jordan: how the monarchy manages change

Nermeen Murad Garlick, 19 May 2002
Even where its own identity is ambiguous, political skill has allowed the Hashemite monarchy to maintain public loyalty in a turbulent region.

Give us a republic - "Just not yet"

Nigel Hancock, 19 May 2002
In Australia, the argument about monarchy is intimately tied to the tension between ‘old’ and ‘new’ worlds.

An Afghan perspective on the British monarchy

Nushin Arbabzadah, 19 May 2002
After childhood images of Iran and Afghanistan, the transcendental ordinariness of the British Queen gave Nushin Arbabzadeh a fresh perspective on monarchy.
Monday 13th May

A sense of belonging

Sylvia Mortoza, 13 May 2002
A monarch is an indispensable part of my heritage. Logic says it shouldn’t be...and yet it is.

A view from Belgium: thank you, and goodbye?

Denis Safrany, 13 May 2002
The monarchy was present at Belgium’s creation. Will it share the nation’s demise?
Wednesday 8th May

Being royalist the Danish way

Solana Larsen, 8 May 2002
The bond of affection between monarchy and people in Denmark is grounded in a shared sense of the national character.
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