Is a Monarchy more Effective than Democracy?

Two types of government have greatly affected our government how it is today. These two types are monarchy, with a king or queen, and democracy with a president and representatives. In England around 1509, they had a monarchy and Henry VIII was the king. Our type of government today is a democracy. The government we have is a much better type of government than a monarchy.

In 1509, Henry VIII was crowned king after the death of his brother (“Web”). With him being the monarch, he had all of the control over England except for the church which the Pope was in charge of (“Web”). Because King Henry VIII had all the power he could do what he wanted, so he just focused his attention on foreign policies in Western Europe (“Web”). Also, during Henry’s reign, there was a problem with the church and caused the formation of the Church of England (“Web”). Henry wanted a son, but his current wife Catherine could not have one (“Web”). He therefore wanted to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn (“Web”). The Pope however, because he was in charge of the church, would not let him have the divorce (“Web”). So, Henry broke away from the church and created the Church of England. Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy saying that Henry was 'the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia' (“Web”). The first line of the Act states, “Albeit the king's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England…” (“Act”). This shows that the king is the only one in charge instead of the Pope.Because you had to follow what the king made law; it caused many religious differences between the Protestants and the Catholics (“Web”).

Democracies help the country more. They allow everyone to have a say in what happens to their nation instead of just allowing one person to. In this type of government there are representatives to serve as the “people’s” voice. If the people do not like the person they have elected, they then have the opportunity to take them out of office. Also, there are three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial (“More”). They help to keep the representative in line, so there is no corruption of the government (“More”). Our president is in charge of the government, but they have to pass their ideas through Congress. Our current president Obama has many problems that were pushed upon him as soon as he stepped up as president (Kakutani). He inherited a major financial crisis and two wars (Kakutani). About the war, Obama says, “There is no denying the progress,'' Obama said. ''Nor, however, can we deny the very serious challenges still facing Afghanistan.'' (“New”). Obama understands the need for him to pull our country together and face the challenges put in front of him. Because other people have a say in the government, it runs smoother because it involves everyone else’s ideas.

The monarchy of Henry was a great reign and he accomplished many achievements. Monarchies are not very good because they involve absolute power. If someone has absolute power then there are always problems. In a democracy there might be problems, but they can be fixed very easily with help from representatives.



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