Thursday, September 22, 2011

A Willing King for Libya?

Prince Mohammed el Senussi, great-nephew of King Idris I, is ready to serve as King of Libya if its people want him. Leaders of the rebels, typically reluctant to share any power or glory, deny that he and the royal family are to have a constitutional role in post-Gaddafi Libya, but other Libyans surely back a return of the King. Hopefully their rightful aspirations for constitutional monarchy will not be thwarted by republican scheming inside and outside Libya as has happened in far too many other countries on the brink of restoration. Monarchists can oppose making the Crown dependent on electoral consent without violating our own principles, since we do not claim "majority rule" as the basis of all political legitimacy (whether it is prudent to do so today is another matter), but if democrats are true to theirs, they must allow a free vote on the restoration of the monarchy and respect the result whatever it is. Long live the Kingdom of Libya!

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