Is a monarchy good for democracy? [View all]

[primavera]

I've been thinking about the UK's constitutional monarchy and the role played by the royal family and their system of knighthoods and OBEs and such. From the outside looking it, it looks rather like the constitutionally constrained monarchy gets to stay more or less aloof from the mosh pit of day to day politics and has at least the potential to act as a sort of moral beacon. Separated from the day to day power struggles, a monarch can simply stand for what they believe is right, and inspire others to follow an example that is more ethical than necessarily pragmatic. Likewise, OBEs give successful members of society a goal to strive for that isn't just about the acquisition of wealth, but again, reflects one's moral stature in society. It occurs to me that perhaps that's an important part of what's missing in our political system: there is no voice of conscience or device for encouraging and rewarding moral conduct. We have no visible spokesperson who encourages us to do the right thing and there is no formal recognition for doing so - the only things that matter in our country are power and money. Since power flows from money, well, it's really ultimately just about the money with us. I wonder if, ironically, our democracy wouldn't be healthier if we had retained some of those monarchical aspects of the UK system when we forged our nation, or, in the alternative, at least established separate offices for a president and prime minister to allow at least one public official to champion the moral integrity that the power players in the trenches cannot afford.

I know, I know, this is all totally academic and irrelevant, but as a former poli sci student, I just find questions of political structures and institutions interesting. Anyone have any thoughts they'd care to share?