Sacred mitigators

The issue for the biblical regime was not whether Israel's sons had a monarchy or some other form of government. The issue was, irrespective of the form Israel's government took, whether it was willing to be a 'constitutional' form of government, whether Israel's sons' rulers were willing to submit to some sacred, mitigating institutions that foreclosed absolutist exercise of power or whether the sacred institutions were understood as there merely to buttress the power of the ruling elites.