Editing Monarchy (section)

===Legitimization===
A Monarch can't rule by force and fear alone. It's costly, wasteful, there's always someone who won't be intimidated, if the threat of violence fails to materialize the fear that cowed the populace can rapidly crystalize into hatred and a monarch still needs people to beat and scare people into line. A monarch can also buy the loyalty of those enforcing minions with money, food, housing, etc to follow their orders. But relying on wealth alone means that unscrupulous underlings will plot to usurp the throne, especially if pay is late. To ensure that their reign continues and their dynasty endures, Monarchs need something to convince people that their reign is the Right and Proper order of things. There are several ways to do so and most countries employ a mix...

*<u>Beneficence</u>: A Monarch provides wealth to worthy causes such as charity to the poor, assistance when disaster strikes and so forth. Obviously a Monarch who helps those in need out will be seen as a good thing by those who are or who have been down on their luck, especially when compared to a cruel miser. The same goes to those who use their wealth to build and maintain bridges, roads and other such useful things.
*<u>Justice</u>: A Monarch who is seen to settle disputes fairly, avoid unnecessary cruelty, properly deals with the corrupt and rights wrongs is usually seen as a positive thing. Creating uniform legal codes to replace centuries of outdated and confusing laws is one way for a King to streamline the legal system and make it more fair.
*<u>Pax</u>: The Monarch's Reign has brought peace, especially compared to the conflicts and turmoil which was the case before the rise of their dynasty.  A strong military or foreign policy that stops the threat of banditry and raids will give the peasants much-needed breathing room to help the kingdom's economy prosper, and normally leave them with more money as they don't have to worry about being attacked all the time.  In monarchies, peace is often bought through marriage, combining royal bloodlines and creating a personal union of nations; this can work very well when it unites groups that were already pretty similar.
*<u>Religion</u>: Either by claiming a measure of Divinity for yourself, holding key religious positions or by having religious institutions say that your rule is how the gods want it. In Medieval Times the Church said that the social order was divinely ordained and (with some exceptions, usually when the King repeatedly and majorly goes against the church) that disobedience to their Rightful Authority was not something god approved of. This eventually evolved into the Divine Right of Kings. Even so, a King may go the extra mile by building bigger and better places of worship, or by recovering holy artifacts and turning their capital into the religious center of the region, thereby bringing in pilgrims across and from outside the kingdom.
*<u>Tradition</u>: If this place has been a Monarchy for some time and especially if your Dynasty has reigned for a long while, you can claim that the rule of your line is the right and proper way of things and that attempting to change it would go against the ways of your people. With enough stability and good reputation, the citizenry will identify with the monarchy as part of its cultural heritage, even long after a particular monarchy has stopped having any real political power.
*<u>Culture</u>: A wealthy nation that actively promotes the arts and invests in talent can establish itself as a cultural centre to be envied and emulated. Not only does it keep the people happy, it can even cement your reign as your country's Golden Age of prosperity and cultural heritage. Future generations will seek to replicate the success of their Golden Age to legitimize themselves as well. It also helps that patronizing the arts gets you in the good graces of many artists, writers and intellectuals; it's not or nothing that Louis XIV put a lot of effort into being immortalized as the ''Sun King''.
*<u>Education</u>: A Monarch can afford to get the best education their kingdom can offer for their kids, especially the Heir Apparent. Numerous Tutors, each both wise in their fields and good at handling students and with access to all the works of history who can invest all their effort in helping them towards wisdom. The idea that the person destined to wield ultimate authority in a nation of millions has been trained since they could form a sentence to rule is in theory a solid justification as to why they should rule instead of Joe Schmo the shoemaker or Alice from Accounting. Of course it still takes two to tango and you can have a little shithead who'd neglects their lessons in favour of abusing servants for a larf.
*<u>Philosophy</u>: Learned individuals can be found who can articulate why Monarchy is the proper order of things. Once they emerge, promoting their essays, books and so forth can legitimize your rule to the masses. Since even the learned need to eat, your patronage on that front will produce lots of said treatises. The Philosopher-King was seen by Plato as the ideal ruler, seeing its closest form in the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. To this end, have your various channels of dissemination and religious authorities promote those ideas far and wide.
*<u>Censorship</u>: On the flip-side, eventually someone will write responses against the works justifying your rule while others will come up with arguments against your reign or even that (gasp) that Monarchy itself is not the best way to govern. In that case, forbidding the publishing of these seditious treaties or slanderous libel lets proper loyal modes of thought flourish without pernicious weeds of dissent spoiling the garden. 
*<u>Repression</u>: The next step from censorship is to establish a secret police force and crack down on republicans, reformers and revolutionaries. This of course can easily backfire; having a dozen democrats decapitated for spreading pamphlets saying that you are a cruel tyrant kind of proves their point. Beyond simply clubbing contrarians effective repression includes campaigns to discredit dissenters, manufacturing bogus chargers, shift blame and so forth.
*<u>Parliamentary Concession</u>: Sometimes the best thing a monarch can do if they want to keep their crown and a head to wear it with is to simply let at least a section of the common folk vote in representatives and have a say in government. It might lead to the degradation of their power in the long run, but at least the monarch and their descendants will be around to possess it.