Hello, I am writing a sci-fy story set in the future and need to introduce the monarchical ruler of Earth in a post apocalyptic world. The form of government is a federal monarchy and I want an issue that would serve as a divide between the monarch and those that want a democratic government. I already have an idea for this but I don't think it is strong enough. I would also like it to mirror today's political issues.
Like, ruler of all of Earth? My thoughts would be that there would be very limited communication possibilities post-apoc. and vassal monarchs would be able to play it pretty loose without the head monarch knowing much of what's going on. An oppressed populace under a tyrannical local royal that has trouble being heard in court by the Head King and receiving no protection from the local government seems like it would want to separate and try things on their own.
The best thing you can do in these instances is look up modern or historical events of dictatorships! A lot include harsh punishments to keep a regime intact. Censorship through the roof, mass incarceration, secret raids enforced by outside forces loyal to the royals. There would be a lot of political unrest no matter what in this world just from the situation. Propaganda through every means would be saying the monarchy is keeping the world together. An individual on the democratic side could be any story. A spy, a defector, an arsonist, the list goes on. If you develop your worlds history I'm sure all kinds of balls will get rolling. Just the whole world being under ruler with different cultures, religions and values clashing would already make a hell, haha.
Since when has a democratic movement needed a special issue to overthrow a monarchy? The existence of a monarchy is the issue. That's what democracy is... doesn't get any simpler than that.
I think what kind of government exists is less of an issue for people as long as they're being taken care of, or at least the government is not the main source of their problems. Most people are going to put their efforts into living day to day trying to raise crops and not get the plague. Whether their government is a monarchy, aristocracy, meritocracy or democracy, usually for a revolt to happen, there has to be a small dissenting group that incites some sort of insurrection in the general populace. Even so, there usually has to be at least one inciting incident get people out of the turnip patches and onto the streets calling for the blood of the bourgeoisie. There are still around 20 countries in the world living under a monarch, a good portion of them first world nations with currently less political dissent than The United States. Canada itself is for all intents and purposes member of a federal monarchy under The United Kingdom and seeing as we're treated rather well by our dear Queen Mum, no one is reaching for their torches and pitchforks for no other reason than we have a Queen as our Head Of State.
So, something along the lines of the German Empire, with one overall monarch and multiple constituent states? The answer really depends on the power of the factions. How strong is the central monarchy? Is there already a popularly elected legislature? How strong is the pro-democracy movement in the beginning, and is their goal complete abolition of monarchy or simply concentrating most power in elected officials? It may be worth looking at historical popular revolts against monarchies for ideas about inciting incidents.
here a couple of slide shares by craig collins you may be interested in: the first link shows how government corruption works the second link ties into literacy programs as a stabilizing factor, where the promise of prosperity and equality can drive a call for revolution. The elites have identified the crucial triangle which inevitably creates a call to arms by a larger population. Which consists of Food, Water, and Energy, where today energy translates into the oil. Take away any of these thru any number of risk factors or simply make one unaffordable and you end up with riots, or at minimum mass scale demonstrations. You could have riots from failing economies, but this is related to food or energy becoming unaffordable. natural disasters are the main focus because it can quickly turn a regional area into utter chaos. this looks at climate and notes it as one of the risk factors http://old.wbcsd.org/work-program/sector-projects/water/waterenergyfood.aspx here is the gov agency created to manage the integrity of the water food energy nexus. http://www.fao.org/land-water/water/watergovernance/waterfoodenergynexus/en/
You best bet will be to pick the collectivist/individualist ideal as the fault line. The collectivists (of whatever stripe you fancy; fascist, communist, whatever) are the more potent political force because they are much better at organizing together but the individualists while less effective are pretty much defacto the good guys even if they can't arrange a piss up in a brewery. Going down this route is interesting because it'll let you create weird fault lines; particularly if it's the individualists supporting the federal monarch.
