Which is a better type of government monarchy or democracy?
In centuries past, a monarchy was a feudal hierarchy (Holy Roman Empire/Germany) or a hereditary dictatorship (Russia, France). Monarchies of the feudal type function well in diverse countries where people are regionally of different ethnic groups and speak different languages and have different religions–but where there is no robust middle class or where economic stability is not a given; monarchies of the dictatorship type function best when there is otherwise a vacuum of power and leadership in the society and where economic and social conditions are not otherwise stable, so long as the monarch is able to enforce stability. If the monarch cannot enforce stability, the result is usually revolution of some kind (cf. France, Russia).
