Democracy vs. Monarchy

Main Difference

The difference between “democracy” and “monarchy” is so bright as the difference between right and left. In fact both are based on different and opposite principles. What are the meanings of these terms? What are the differences between these two? These are the question that will be answered in this article.

Democracy

This simple definition of democracy is, “the government of the people, by the people, for the people”. It is a government system that is based on the opinions of the majority of the citizens of a state or country. Public have free right to elect their public members through free and fair election process. All citizens are equal according to law. Law will be passed and rejected according to the opinion of majority of public that will be directly performed by their elected members. Duties, responsibilities, powers and authorities of everyone are defined according to constitution or according to law in case of not having written constitution.

Monarchy

Monarchy is the similar term to kingdom and stands for same meaning as of kingdom. It is a government system that is lead by 1 or 2 individuals, mostly of a specific family. There is no election system in the state and head of state is decided by heredity. Upon the death of monarch or kings, the government or crown is passed down to the next successor of the predecessor. In short, it is important to be part of royal family if someone wants to become the part of higher government. King, queen, duke, duchess, sultan, sultana, etc all are kind of monarchs. In modern day, there are two types of monarchy. First is “absolute monarchy” that holds all the rights and faced few legal restraints in state and political matters. Second is “constitutional monarchy” in which office passed to royal family member by system of voting.

Key Differences

Democracy is a government system that is lead by the elected representatives of the public while monarchy is a government system that is lead by a monarch or a specific royal family.

Elected representatives are eligible to hold the public office for a fixed term or tenure and next comes by a complete election process while in monarchy there is no election system and monarch mostly remain in position until his death and after his death his successor becomes the head of state or government.

In democracy, law is equal for all. While in monarchy, monarch is the other name of law.

There is involvement of people in politics, directly or indirectly, in democracy. While monarchy is a family affair.

Freedom of expression and opinion is respected in democracy while there is no concept of public opinion in monarchy.

India, Pakistan, USA, etc are examples of democracy while UK is a limited or constitutional monarchy and Saudi Arabia and UAE are absolute monarchy.