If you read up on the history of French revolution, they didn't particularly want a republic. They got a republic as the last resort... and they changed the country forever, even Emperor Napoleon didn't roll everything back.

They still wanted a lot of changes to allow more freedom, restrictions and more transparency... just not necessarily a formal republic.

Think about this - in CATO's own Human Freedom Index half of the top 16 countries are monarchies.

1 New Zealand - monarchy 2 Switzerland - republic 3 Hong Kong (definitely not going to be in #4 now) 4 Canada - monarchy 5 Australia - monarchy 6 Denmark - monarchy 6 Luxembourg - monarchy 8 Finland - republic 8 Germany - republic 10 Ireland - repulbic 11 Sweden - monarchy 11 Netherlands - monarchy 13 Austria - republic 14 United Kingdom - monarchy 15 Estonia - republic 15 United States - republic