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I think what the disappearance of Western Monarchies after 1918 obscures the most is the political systems aspect of monarchy which over time has become the least understood divergences in statecraft.

This opens the pathway to both democratic and auth “mystification” of monarchy
To illustrate what I mean, The Russian Empire, despite haughtiness of foreign observers and the screams of its own liberals and later Marxists, was constantly undergoing administrative restructuring as modernization and industrialization took place. Not only on the lower levels
The 18th century saw a plethora of Councils changing as frequently as the sovereign in structure and real role, often packed with favorites of Empresses. Orlov, Panin and Potemkin all sat at the Council of the Highest Court at the same time each holding a administrative retinue.
These were major changes not only to the structure of executive and legislative governmen at the very top, but often amounted to the effects of revolutions below. From the 1720’s hereditary nobility was granted from service to the state in the Army or Civil Bureacracy.
This was turned into a expansion of franchise rights under Catherine the Great, with the 1785: “Charter to the Gentry” establishing elected Gentry Assemblies at the Governate and Uyezd levels of the Russian Empire.

Russia had a larger per capita sufferage than contemporary UK.
So, how did “Autocratic Russia” survive? In reality, it changed significantly from the 18th century autocrat prerogative under Alexander I and Speransky’s massive structural reforms which established the form of a modern all empire bureaucratic system.
The State Council of the Russian Empire and the executive Committee of Ministers were both established by decree in 1810, and both were, at the time, considered liberal reforms of the Young Alexander. In truth, much of the daily executive power was delighted to these men.
The Tsar of course had final say on matters of critical importance but such matters were ultimately a function of person of the Tsar’s interest in such matters. I.E. Nicholas II intervened in the Second Balkan crisis to prevent invasion of AH but not in railroad construction.
The major problem of this system, from a structural point of view, was that many of the new and increasingly consolidated ministries were not actually linked together in a single system of state. This lead to rivalry turning into assassination attempts and political terrorism
Many histories talk about the Duma and 1905, “finally the autocracy granted a democratic concession but then was stupid enough to pull it back.”

But few explain really how the Tsar allegedly found the die hard monarchist people to do this. The answer was he (mostly) didn’t.
The other innovation of 1905 was the creation of the Council of Ministers as a unilateral executive power, under a Chairman that had more power than ever before, he was finally a Prime Minister. And the Duma was by nature an enemy to this arrangement.
When the provisional government took power, in the February Revolution. It was not a continuation of the Duma, but the Council of Ministers with a prime minister, but with a ministry selection from leaders of the Progressive 4th Duma and increasingly the Petrograd Soviet.
There were no real Kadet or Octoberist statesmen though, and they failed to win the battles Stolypin had won. Regardless, the executive, bureaucratic, council of ministers model would not only be what the Soviet Union’s governance would look like but also our current Russia.
The evolution of the state with these roles is something that transcends ideological rigidity, despite its outward public relations necessity of embracing ideals as brands. Personalities still matter, and a clean slate bureaucracy is possible, but likely, painful and unplanned.
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