The appeal of the royal family is in its projection of a reformist ethos, where everything can change, but remain firmly within the bounds of the established order.
"Successful movements for democracy have always sought to relate to the broader social circumstances in which they operate. The working class has its own, distinctive and independent history upon which we can stand, and through which we can propose as a progressive substitute.
Many of these rights are ones we have inherited today. These are the people’s festivals which have punctuated and changed the course of history, and as such they can be proposed as a counterbalance to the rituals which surround the monarchy. In the same way as the traditions which sustain elite rule serve an ideological function, so too can the history of people’s movements be remembered and reimagined.
The memory of collective and democratic struggle can come to countervail the pageantry of the establishment. Our opposition to monarchy should not, therefore, amount to a soulless and technocratic fix. But one which itself is steeped in its own heritage and tradition. Such remembrance can become a totem for informing the movements today, as well as offering centuries-old roots.
Those of us who want to see real democracy extended to all areas of social and economic life should remember that we too have our own history to draw from."