Slavery

[sun-star]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
Monarchies are one form of slavery, for example. Monarchies were a form of government that very broadly existed until very recently. They were one of the forms of government that worked best. Rejecting slavery could be seen as rejecting this form of government. But not only this form of government, completely, either.

I was waiting for a lull in the discussion to bring this up. What form of monarchy are you referring to here? Monarchy and dictatorship are not synonymous, and democracy is not the opposite of monarchy - they can co-exist quite well. I think your definition of slavery is restriction on freedom, to a greater or lesser extent, and you made the point that laws are the means of restricting this freedom. To the best of my knowledge, countries with a monarchial system of government don't have more laws than republics (and I feel that if they do, I should be informed ).

Autocracies, on the other hand, often have many of the characteristics you suggest monarchies have - primarily lack of democracy. I wonder if that was the model of monarchy you were thinking of?