Calvinism and Politics

I recently picked up my copy of Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism in order brush up on his arguments. Kuyper argues that Calvinism espouses an “all-embracing system of principles” (Kuyper, 19) that defines our relation to God, the world and man. This shouldn’t be news to any self-respecting reformed person, but Kuyper pushes the envelope with quotes like this:

…Calvinism is rooted in a form of religion which was peculiarly its own, and from this specific religious consciousness there was developed first a peculiar theology, then a special church-order, and then a given form for political and social life, for the interpretation of the moral world-order, for the relation between nature and grace, between Christianity and the world, between church and state, and finally for art and science… (Kuyper, 17)

and even more provocative:

[Calvinism] is opposed to all hierarchy among men; it tolerates no aristocracy save such as is superiority of character or talent, and to show that it does not but for the sake of spending it in the service of God. So Calvinism was bound to find its utterance in the democratic interpretation of life; to proclaim the liberty of nations; and not to rest until both politically and socially every man, simply because he is man, should be recognized, respected and dealt with as a creature created after the Divine likeness. (Kuyper, 27)

While I appreciate his intent, I struggle to find the Bible advocating “a given form for political and social life.” While the Bible certainly has much to say about the way we conduct our political and social lives, is not the precise form of our political arrangement in particular a matter of Christian liberty? Cannot the church flourish under both monarchies and republics? Granted, some structures may be more suited for the Christian and the advancement of the gospel, but I would not go so far as to say that democracy is the natural result of a consistent Calvinism.