Rose Restoration

Gerald Warner has an article in the Telegraph stating that Georgia may renew its monarchy. As a constitutional monarchist, I was interested to read the article and the possibility of the first real monarchist revival in my lifetime.

First, the history:

Even before the Russian invasion this proposal was being canvassed within the past year. The Bagration dynasty is more than a thousand years old and was forcibly removed from the Georgian throne by Russia in 1801. The Georgian people never consented to the abolition of either their monarchy or their national sovereignty.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and Georgia declared independence, one of the earliest proposals for a constitutional settlement was the restoration of the monarchy. In 1991 the Georgian government and parliament officially recognised Prince George Bagration-Moukhranski, formerly well known as a racing driver, as head of the royal house. The fact that they took the trouble to do so demonstrates that the monarchy was a substantive political issue.

At its hight, restoration was favored by 45% of the public with only 29% opposed. The current situation:

Mikheil Saakashvili is badly discredited. The nation may, for the moment, be rallying around him as a symbol of national identity, but that effect will not last long. His was the only political party in Georgia unambiguously opposed to a restoration, but it has little credibility now. In a time of defeat and suffering people are turning to the church, which is royalist.

Georgia has no military options against Russia, its economy has been devastated, it lacks diplomatic leverage. Yet there is one politico-cultural gesture it could make to renew itself, to reassert its national identity, to unite around a non-partisan symbol, and that is to restore its monarchy. The fact that it was originally abolished by Russia would give added meaning to this act of constitutional renewal.

The acknowledged head of the royal house, the de jure King George XIV, died earlier this year. His 32-year-old son Prince Davit would be the candidate for king if the same dynastic line is recognized and restored.

A monarchy in the 21st century is not as strange as it sounds. The gut reaction in the democratic West is negative to royalty and dynastic politics, but a monarch can be a positive national force. It can serve as a unifying symbol for the people in time of national hardship, whether it be King George VI during World War II in Great Britain, Emperor Hirohito in Japan after the defeat in war, or King Rama IX during the recent political upheaval in Thailand. And recent restorations aren’t that uncommon. Consider King Juan Carlos of Spain, who was restored to the throne after 45 years of republican dictatorship.