# How Could Denmark 'Also' Be A Monarchy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-denmark-also-be-a-monarchy/968640>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 27, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-denmark-also-be-a-monarchy/968640 "2022-07-27T11:05:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2022, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-denmark-also-be-a-monarchy/968640/41 "2022-07-31T10:07:52Z")

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There is an argument for the view that a _constitutional_ monarchy, serving as a living symbol of the legal continuity of the state, can ease the acceptance of social changes - by absorbing them into the national tradition it symbolises. Politicians do the leading from the front in debates (theoretically), royalty’s job is to stay near, or even slightly behind, the centre of gravity of public opinion. Such causes as they are associated with are what I think the US would regard as “First Lady” causes.

Taking Denmark specifically, t[he last time a monarch tried to interfere politically (in 1920)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Crisis) he was rebuffed. Famously, [Juan Carlos of Spain intervened to stop a military coup d’état against the then new democratic régime](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Spanish_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt) in 1981, but that’s a rare example in exceptional circumstances.

As for private wealth, high levels of tax and public expenditure don’t necessarily preclude private wealth - they might restrain its acquisition and inheritance, but they’re not deliberately confiscatory.

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