Bowing To the King
August 18, 1953 — The Times Record
August 18, 1953 — The Times Record
| The Mossadegh Project | September 1, 2014 |
The Times Record newspaper of Troy, New York puts in a good word for the fading institution of monarchies in this Tuesday evening editorial published one day before the return of the Shah from Rome.
ONE LESS MONARCHY?
But is that phrase accurate? What is a monarchy? Theoretically in Britain the Parliament elects its ruler and it may, if it wishes, ignore the rules of royal descent. Strictly speaking, nations elect their kings. Belgium made a change in the regular line of precedence recently. Other nations have done it often. In reality monarchy is a name. The people pick their rulers. With the exception, of course, of those monarchies which rest upon force. Sometimes a ruler seizes the crown and prevents, through his army, any change in the title.
How does monarchy, then, differ from absolutism except in name? Is the Russian leadership any less of an absolute monarchy, ruled by fear and force, than the monarchy of Cambyses or of Cyrus? It is not. Is not Mossadegh now the Shah of Persia in everything but the name? The fact is that the world has drifted strongly toward absolute monarchy during the last twenty years, not away from it. All we have lost is the type of regal government which Britain and the Scandinavian countries have. And, in reality, there were never many monarchies in the world which were honestly constitutional.
Related links:
World Information — The Times Record, August 20, 1953
The Reluctant Dragon — U.S. Editorial, August 20, 1953
Mossadegh Alone At Last — The Times Record, August 17, 1953
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
