The unity and integrity of the state seem to be best secured in an absolute monarchy, but only for as long as everything really is united in one hand. If the state grows to a point where for practical reasons it becomes mipossible to concentrate the range of affairs of state in one hand, then monarchy is destabilized and the subsistence of the state is to be secured only through transition to another form of state. Democracy, by its very idea, gives the state its most secure grounding. However, it places demands upon the totality of the citizens that -- when measured against the average caliber of human beings -- are set so high that they are always very unlikely to be fulfilled. The danger of deterioration is very great with this modality of state.
Edith Stein, An Investigation Concerning the State, Sawicki, tr. ICS (Washington, D.C.: 2006) pp. 34-35.
