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Hierarchy vs Monarchy - What's the difference?

hierarchy | monarchy |

As nouns the difference between hierarchy and monarchy

is that hierarchy is a body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks while monarchy is a government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).

hierarchy

English

Noun

(hierarchies)
  • A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy : at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.}}
  • Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.
  • monarchy

    Noun

    (monarchies)
  • A government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).
  • * An absolute monarchy is a monarchy where the monarch is legally the ultimate authority in all temporal matters.
  • * A constitutional monarchy is a monarchy in which the monarch's power is legally constrained, ranging from where minor concessions have been made to appease certain factions to where the monarch is a figurehead with all real power in the hands of a legislative body.
  • The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
  • A form of government where sovereignty is embodied by a single ruler in a state and his high aristocracy representing their separate divided lands within the state and their low aristocracy representing their separate divided fiefs.
  • Usage notes

    Historically refers to a wide variety of systems with a single, nominally absolute ruler (compare (m), (m)), today primarily refers to and connotes a traditional, hereditary position, often with mainly symbolic power. Typically used of rulers who use the terms (m)/(m) or (m)/(m).

    Synonyms

    * autocracy * despotism * dictatorship * tyranny

    Coordinate terms

    See also

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