In my student days, in reading Edward Banfield's
(1958) account of the beliefs of the people in a
poor village in Southern Italy, I came upon a
remarkable statement by a village monarchist. He
said, "Monarchy is the best kind of government
because the King is then owner of the country. Like
the owner of a house, when the wiring is wrong, he
fixes it" (p. 26). The villager's argument jarred against
my democratic convictions. I could not deny that the
owner of a country would have an incentive to make
his property productive. Could the germ of truth in
the monarchist's argument be reconciled with the
case for democracy?