Difference Between Democracy and Monarchy
The Democratic form of government is a kind of government that is headed by the elected representatives by the people. It is a government which functions through the power of governance that emanates from the people of the country. Democracy could easily be depicted as a government “Of the People”, “By the People” and “For the People.” The concept of democracy goes back in time to the ancient Greece. A monarchy does not have any explicit illustration or roots.
A Monarchy type of a government is diametrically the opposite of a democratic form of a government. In a Monarchy, the political power of the whole country is handed over to a single person who also acts as the Head of the State and exercises all his powers.
In a democratic form of a government, everyone is considered to be an equal in the eyes of the law, although in a monarchy, the law resides in the profile of the monarch.
In a democracy, it is the people of the land that elect a government of their own choice and therefore the power to elect governments rests with the people themselves. Democracy encourages and supports the process of elections and thus is the peoples’ choice of holding elections.
However, in a monarchy, it is the single person who inherits the throne and gains ascendancy and the power. In almost every monarchy, the heir to the monarchy is a person who belongs to the heritage and the bloodline and that is known as dynastic power. This goes on for generations through generations.
It needs to be clearly understood that the foundation of democracy is established on both equality and independence. The monarchy on the contrary is entirely different meaning that the monarch is above the law since he enacts the laws in his monarchy. The citizens in a democracy are assured of their rights of equality and freedom. The monarch in his realm does not impose any restriction on the independence of the people, yet this is totally dependent on the whims and fancies of the monarch.
It would be of interest to observe that in monarchies around the world, there are absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy. The constitutional monarchies in existence in the world are Thailand and the United Kingdom. Besides the above two monarchies, there are the elective and hereditary monarchy, where the position and power is handed over to the relative or next of kin of the ruling monarch.
Similarly, democracy also has its variations in constitutional democracy, liberal democracy, parliamentary democracy, Representative democracy and direct democracy, each of which has their own parities and disparities.