Tolkien's Anarcho-Monarchism Analysis

Tolkien was drawn towards the idea of both anarchy and monarchy. In letters he wrote to his son, he further explains his ideal ruling of society. He made the argument that authority and the responsibility of the public’s wellbeing should be delegated to people of lower status. This allows public decisions to be made with input from a larger spectrum of the social ranks. The common interest of the whole would be satisfied. This contradicts the norm of assigning control of those who aim to obtain the power.

Tolkien's anarcho-monarchism can be related to agrarianism. Anarcho-monarchists believe societies should have a person to represent the culture of the community as a whole. Their job does not include possessing more authority than others;
the representative would have no power. Other members of the community would owe the representative nothing. David Hart related this idea of a powerless ruler, to the king piece in a game of chess. The king is “the most useless piece on the board, which occupies its square simply to prevent any other piece from doing so, but which is somehow still the whole game”.

Agrarian societies experience a strong sense of community. Agrarian societies rely on the land to provide for them economically. Both the social and work lives of the members are closely intertwined, producing a society of economically similar people. Because of such uniformity, the power in the community is more equally spread.

Both anarcho-monarchism and agrarianism societies, provide members with relatively equal power; weather it is their goal, or just the outcome due to the societies customs. Anarcho-monarchism works to spread the power among the majority of the members. This implies people of lower economic statuses have a voice in the community. An agrarianism community is very close-knit, thus producing similarities, physically, socially, and economically. Order is kept by the knowledge of the traditional behavior and customs of the community. Although there are not many laws, crime is uncommon.

Tolkien's anarcho-monarchism is applicable to urban sustainability today. I believe sharing the power and control with not only the wealthy, would help increase sustainability. Climate change and other affects of unsustainable human practices, directly affect those of lower economical status. If they had more power and say in decisions that directly affect them, I believe more sustainable decisions would be made.