Monarchy Party - Florida State University Monarchy Party

Florida State University Monarchy Party

The group at Florida State University was formed late one night in 1989, in the TV lounge of Landis Hall (which was the dormitory for honors students at FSU) by Andrew Arvesen, Chuck Powell, and Jon Lammers. The original idea was to protest the dominance of the "Greek" fraternity/sorority system in student government, which they felt led to cronyism and misallocation of student activity fees. To do this, though, they had to register a political party that would be entitled to participate in the election debates. Briefly, they considered names such as the Erection Party, with slogans such as "We're hard to beat" or "We'll stay up all night for you." But it seemed much more apt to mock the current state of affairs, with the Greek organizations treating student government as its own personal fiefdom. "They might as well be hereditary monarchs," said Arvesen. That was it. A party was born.

While they knew they were basing their party on a joke, they were not having a joke party. Instead, they employed humor to serious political ends. As FSU Monarchy Party Crown Prince, Jason Shipp, once accused his opponent: ". . . You are a true master of politics, from poly meaning many, and ticks meaning bloodsuckers."

Since the opposing student parties at FSU (Seminole Party and Action Party) were better funded, the Monarchists used alternative campaigning techniques. They wore bright colored renaissance and medieval outfits, often borrowed from the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, they wore swords, and had their displays around campus set up with working stocks and a functioning guillotine (used to chop cabbage and watermelons in the student union). These props were made by Gregory Cohen, the behind the scenes guy in the party. His hobby seems to have been taking wild ideas from other members of the group and making them into reality.

The Monarchy Party grew to be one of the largest student groups on the campus of FSU, holding coronations with an attendance of over 800 students. Many formerly uninvolved students became politically active due to the Monarchists, as is shown by the fact that elections in which they participated drew record voter turnouts. In a single format, spectacle, wonder, and politics were combined into a synergistic moment with the Monarchy Party. As one observer at the time put it, "Other parties have supporters, but the Monarchy Party has a fan club."

In order to operate as a student organization between elections, the group also incorporated itself as the Young Monarchist's League. Some members took an active interest in researching current and historical monarchies, enabling the group to add authentic features to their public events and ceremonies, such as coronations, investitures, and the like. Such ceremonies were always accompanied by a large party, with live music and entertainment. However, the high point of the event was when the monarch held court, a performance that combined medieval costuming, satirical humor, and the random ennoblement of audience members. These events attracted hundreds of students. As one of their posters stated, "A political party is still a party."

The party itself while symbolized with the trappings of a monarchy took a separate route in the minds of the Students of FSU, to the point that on its own, the pronunciation of Monarchy (as in the party) shifted its emphasis from its first syllable to its second, changing its pronunciation to sound more like Malarky. While not planned, this seemed somewhat appropriate and approved of by the party's organizers.

The Monarchy Party as it grew became a victim of its own success. By its final year in 1994, the party had changed, all of the original members had graduated and had left, and students who wanted to be elected took over the party, and the party became more straight-faced and businesslike. In this final year, Monarchy candidates finally won the Student Body Presidential election, putting Jeannie Belin and Charlie Ward into office. By this time the trappings of office, the costumes, the humor and the royal titles were long gone, so was the newspaper and the mottoes. People's pronunciation of Monarchy returned to the way it was. Andrew Arvesen once said that the "Monarchy Party will get stronger with defeat". Unfortunately, it was victory that killed it.