Republic =/= Democracy, infact most of the time they are at near opposite ends despite modern ideas. Republic means a nation is under the Rule of Law not people. Hence the politicians want to sell democracy as it removes the republican restraints from the de facto oligarchy that always rule a democracy until the…

Elective monarchy, it is a thing. Rare but it has existed in history. Ancient Macedon, Rome, Holy Roman Empire, Malta, Venice and Aztec just to name a few. This is by no means exhaustive just notable examples. In most cases they functioned quite well for centuries without much cultural degeneration as opposed to…