When Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle last year, their wedding was lauded for bringing modernism to that most traditional of institutions, the British monarchy. Their first child, a son, was born Monday morning, and the world’s eyes are once again on the couple and how their approach to parenting might buck conventionality for the British royal family.
The birth of their baby also makes it a good time to examine the overall state of the modern monarchy, says Wharton management professor Mauro Guillen, who has conducted research on this form of government and how the economies of countries that employ it stack up against those without monarchies.
“What I found was essentially that monarchies tend to protect property rights in the contemporary world much better than republics in general—and in particular, than dictatorships,” says Guillen. “That, in the end, results in better economic performance as measured by living standards.”
With the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, Guillen highlights the continuity that monarchies provide, reflecting on the neutrality exhibited by the queen. “She reigns over her citizens but is not the executive in the country. That’s the prime minister. She has adopted a clearly neutral stance, you know—not intervening in saying what she prefers the outcome to be.”
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