The British Monarchy.

One of the characteristics of the United Kingdom is that it is a country in which a large number of people support the monarchy. Even so, nowadays there is a small minority of the British people who are against the monarchy. Surveys suggest that 17% of Britons believe that it is time to abolish the monarchy. They typically cite several reasons.

Firstly, republicans argue that the monarchy is not democratic. They maintain that it is not democratic to have an unelected, hereditary, head of state because the people do not get the opportunity to vote. They believe that the people have the right to choose. Furthmore, despite the fact that it is a convention of the British Constitution that the Queen will not refuse Royal Assent, they defend that the monarchy is anti-democratic because the Queen can refuse to give Royal Assent. Another cause is that the royal prerogative gives extensive power to the executive. In Britain the government, in particular the Prime Minister, exercises considerable power in the name of  the royal prerogative. And these powers are exercised with no legislative supervision or control [in practice the monarch has no power at all - it is a ceremonial role]. The republicans support that without a monarchy these power would reside in parliament, which could decide whether and how to delegate decision to the executive. Anti-monarchy Brits argue that the monarchy institutes inequality because it perpetuates the class system and undermines the proper recognition of merit [but abolishing the monarchy wouldn't get rid of the class system or inequality - and you wouldn't want to live in a real meritocracy anyway - that would be horrible]. Monarchy reminds them of the truth that people are not born equal in society, and that they could never become Head of State because of not belonging to the royal family members. [but in a meritocracy an ordinary person can't get to be as successful as Bill Gates either. At least in a monarchy you don't have to be envious of the queen] In addition, republicans consider that royalty achieve military ranks and medals that they have not earned, and due to that, the work of true military professionals is undervalued. They allow themselves to be nominated as patrons of charities, degrading the efforts of those who make genuine contributions and have real expertise. Moreover, for republicans it is necessary to abolish the monarchy because it affects the economy. They believe that, while it is true that the history of their monarchy and the royal palaces are part of the reason some tourists come to Britain, there is no reason to suppose that a republican constitution would stop tourists visiting the country. An example of this for them is Versailles in republican France. Versailles receives around six million visitors a year, whereas Buckingham Palace, when is open to the public, receives less than half a million. [the numbers visiting the palace are restricted though. ]