Kalistan

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House Ananto comments on Valruzian Monarchy
History provides valuable lessons, says Lady Ananto-McKinley
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
August 4, 5706


Lady Christina Ananto discusses Valruzian politics at House Ananto in Kaliburg

Lady Christina Ananto-McKinley, speaking for House Ananto, offered some thoughts on the public initiative in Valruzia which could alter the national constitution in favor of a monarchy. She gave the comments during an interview that was initially to discuss the need to demolish the ancient Ananto Estate in Eveari because of structural damage from last years major earthquake.

"In Valruzia, democracy is not very old, and so it is still very dynamic," she said. "I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing: There is still lots of opportunity for it to experiment with regime types and government arrangements for it to find what does fit well for the people and for the state. The national system is on a solid foundation, and is not in danger of returning to the tyranny that preceded this system as a result of this experimentation, so it might be the best time of all to consider alternative arrangements of the structure before institutional conservatism sets in for the nation and it becomes encased in stone."

Lady Ananto-McKinley said that the Empress was watching the developments in Valruzia very closely and was very enthusiastic that the people of the nation are willing to even consider establishing a hereditary monarchy for the nation. "I'm not sure Her Imperial Majesty would necessarily pick the Nowiks as her choice for monarch" said Lady Ananto-McKinley, with a laugh. "She doesn't have anything against the Nowiks, but she would prefer someone more conservative, someone like her friend Lady Pawlik. That aside, as she watches the developments, there are a couple of things she has noticed with the developments that she hopes the Valruzians will simply take into account, and she has written them in a personal communique to Lady Pawlik to share with the Government of Valruzia as they proceed."

Some of the points in the letter concern the elevation of a family into monarchy. "Most nations will insist that their monarchs have some sort of historical claim on the right to rule. They go for royalty of a foreign potentate. You saw this, for example, in Kizenia, where they adopted the foreign monarch of Egelion as their own King. That was convenient for Kizenia to do this: they didn't have to find their own king, but had a ready made one in the Egelians, and of course the Egelian King would accept because why wouldn't he? That's one way of doing it, but Kalistan represented another way: The Institutional Party picked one of their own, who had substantial resources to personally capitalize the monarchy as if it were a privately held corporation, and then granted him their own legitimacy, to imbue in him, and subsequently his heirs, the right to rule. Fredrick Guerra was not noble-born--At the time, all the old titles had been destroyed for more than 1000 years. But the National Assembly, in a legislative process, converted the role of President into the role of Emperor. And they also passed a law making that hereditarily transferrable. And thus we were able to create the right to rule out of legislative action. This could be a choice they would make."

Lady Ananto-McKinley also said that the Empress noted some pitfalls that Valruzia should be well-advised to look out for. "If a vibrant multi party, this is one thing, but the power of the monarch will necessarily be limited then by the political infighting among the nation's democrats. In this sense, the monarch would have to be a figure head, subject to the expectations of democratic institutions. Because the people would naturally expect to have a say in legislation through their respective factions. If you want to imbue more power within the monarchy, to get closer to a Kalistani situation, you will necessarily have to limit competing sources of legitimacy. Kalistan is one extreme of this spectrum and the Institutional Party's correct role is that of policy implementation. Someone like Luthori is the other pole, where the Emperor merely accedes to the will of parliament and doesn't even really control his own agenda. They have a thriving multi-party democracy which just happens to have a crown on top of it. Valruzia will likely prefer to have something in between, and likely closer to Luthori's model than Kalistan's."

Lady Ananto-McKinley said that the Empress doesn't see how adopting a monarchical structure, even if only nominally will reduce either democracy or tarnish the reputation of Szymon Nowik. "Her Imperial Majesty believes that democratic government can thrive even in situations where the affairs of State remains the province of one person. In reality, Presidential systems like Valruzia already have that to a degree, they just happen to change their head of state more often than your standard Monarchy. We remember that Mr. Nowik fought against tyranny and for democracy in Valruzia. In Her Imperial Majesty's opinion, one of the best ways to prevent tyranny is to close off the avenues that open the way to tyrants. Keeping one family as the monarchs, regardless of the composition of the government provides an important institutional backstop that can be used to underwrite and guarantee the democracy in the nation, which in her opinion honors the legacy of Mr. Nowik rather than negating it. It functions as a living constitution for the people while denying those who seek to use democracy in practice as a weapon against democracy in ideology, as those with dictatorial and demagogic tendencies often do in liberal nations."

Ultimately, Lady Ananto-McKinley reiterated that Her Imperial Majesty believes the choice is up to the people of Valruzia one way or another. "Adopting a monarch would likely greatly improve Kalistan's relations with Valruzia of course, due to regime convergence," said Lady Ananto-McKinley. "But our relations are very close even without a monarch there in Valruzia. Our Empress greatly admires the Valruzians and feels honored to be friendly with them. She also still practices her Valruzian and believes she has achieved a certain fluency in the language after more than 10 years of study and working with her long time private language tutor, the Valruzian Ms. Jadwiga Woźniak. I don't think the result, whichever way it comes out, will diminish our nation's feeling toward Valruzia. But I do think Her Imperial Majesty hopes that in whatever decision the people arrive at, it is peacefully accepted so that Valruzia's stability is maintained." She said the Empress continues to observe and is excited to see how things turn out in Valruzia.

@TheRepublic