Half a century ago, Samuel P. Huntington (Citation1968), when discussing regime transformations from autocracy to democracy, took the view that an absolute monarch who considered reaching a compromise by means of which he or she would retain some of his or her powers within the framework of a democratic system, was likely to get disappointed. It is somewhat difficult to assess the influence of the monarch in Thai politics. (Citation2017), constitutional developments in Tonga constitute a very good example of the Kings dilemma. The results also showed, that while semi-constitutional monarchic forms of government tend to emerge in rather similar settings and under similar circumstances (i.e. Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. (Citation2017, p. 691). 66109). (Citation2017) point out that smallness is likely to counteract the gloomy prospects for the monarch outlined in the kings dilemma. [online] Retrieved March 9, 2019, from, A new political system model: Semi-presidential government, Freedom House. Crowned republic. This is a list of sovereign states by system of government. We can then give a final assessment of how our two plausible explanations of monarchic power fare. In a parliamentary republic, the head of government is selected or nominated by the legislature and is also accountable to it. It is Europe's fourth-smallest country, with an area of just over 160 square kilometres (62 square miles) and a population of 38,749 (as of 2019). There is also a political mapping of the world that shows what form of government each country has, as well as a brief description of what each form of government entails. One natural dividing line emerges impromptu, as there is a cluster consisting of the five miniature states Bhutan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Tonga. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states: Presidential systems without a prime minister Angola Artsakh Benin Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cyprus Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Gambia, The Ghana Guatemala Honduras Indonesia Kenya Liberia Malawi Maldives Mexico Nicaragua Nigeria Palau Panama Accordingly, all democracies where the monarch has held executive powers, legislative powers, powers over domestic policy, or powers to dissolve the legislature are defined as semi-constitutional monarchies and the rest of the cases, where the monarch is powerless on all dimensions, are conferred to the category constitutional monarchies. The president is elected by parliament and holds a parliamentary seat, much like a prime minister, but is immune from a vote of no confidence (but not their cabinet), unlike a prime minister. I also include a question measuring the influence of the monarch over domestic policy. What local authorities do exist have few powers. It is far from self-evident that the countries will have a democratic form of government with a powerful monarch as head of state after two or three decades. Under other classification systems, however, these systems may instead be classed as semi-presidential systems (despite their weak presidency). In such systems, the president has genuine executive authority, but the role of a head of government may be exercised by the prime minister. Although the dataset is useful for cross-country studies, it certainly has its limitations. In the long run, the monarch faced a zero-sum game; either try to retain his or her powers as an absolute monarch or be stripped of all powers and, at best, continue as a ceremonial head of state of a democracy. Nevertheless, the monarch continues to have extensive powers, especially in the legislative sphere. democratic regimes in which power is shared between a prime minister and a monarch, can be explained by reference to Huntingtons notion of the Kings dilemma and the size of countries. Moving on, the results showed that In Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Yugoslavia the monarch has been in possession of powers in three out of four power dimensions. The only country for which this assessment has been of relevance is Tonga, which is included in the population for the years 20122017. On the other hand, a semi-constitutional monarchy lets the monarch or ruling royal family retain substantial political powers, as is the case in Jordan and Morocco. rezzacci 10 mo. In general, empirical findings strongly supported these propositions. However, he is limited in some small respect, perhaps by a pro-monarchist constitution. Like Sweden, Spain fits into the category where a monarch holds powers for a short transitional phase as a country democratises. The powers of the monarchs are measured with reference to nine questions in the V-dem dataset. I understand that you are either fed up with the hopeless democratically elected leaders of your country or are under some other form of shitty government like a military dictatorship or an oligarch influenced country. For a few years, the king and the prime minister shared executive powers, but it was highly unclear which of the actors that was the most powerful one. Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641914, 19551966, Lesotho 20132016, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 19001939, Monaco 19622017, Spain 1977, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113. f HOG control over (C) (v2exctlhg). in 2015, would fall below the threshold of democracy in 2015: Albania, East Timor, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, and Solomon Islands. (Citation2013), Luxembourg is classified as a democratic country since 1890. A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or until abdication. Every case listed under any of questions 14 is categorised as meeting the criterion of monarchic executive powers (EP), and every case listed under questions 8 or 9 is considered to fulfil the criterion of monarchic legislative powers (LP). This depiction is somewhat qualified by authors who have pointed out that there was indeed some pressure for democratic reforms particularly from external actors (e.g. [21] The term "parliamentary monarchy" may be used to differentiate from semi-constitutional monarchies. Although Governor-Generals are formally appointed by the British monarch, their connection to the British Crown is often very vague. In contrast to many other monarchies, where the monarchs are powerful constitutionally but not in reality, the monarchs of Liechtenstein have in fact used, or threatened to use, their powers, and this is especially the case with the contemporary monarch, Hans Adam II (Beattie, Citation2004, pp. This leaves us with 16 possible power combinations, presented in Table 3. Bhutan 200917, Greece 18641914, 1935, 4666, Italy 191921, Laos 195458, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 190039, 442008, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Netherlands 1945, Norway 190508, Spain 1977, Sweden 191116, Tonga 201217, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 192128. In order to remove a prime minister or their cabinet from power, the president may dismiss them or the parliament can remove them by a vote of no confidence. However, as Corbett et al. (Citation2017), we reach the conclusion that small size appears to be very important for explaining why powerful monarchs persist in democracies. Belarus, Gabon and Kazakhstan, where the prime minister is effectively the head of government and the president the head of state, are exceptions. King Constantine II was highly controversial. The democratic era of Laos ended in 1959, after the military forced Prime Minister Sananikone to resign. The V-dem-dataset (Coppedge et al., Citation2018) is particularly important for the purpose of the present study as it contains a number of variables which compares the powers of the head of state with those of the head of government based explicitly on political practice. Bhutan 201316, Greece 1874, 195066, Liechtenstein 19212017, Monaco 19622017, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113. A semi-constitutional, like some people have said would be like Monaco for instance, the monarch is restricted by a constitution and shares power with a directly elected Prime Minister, the executive power however lies with the head of state and not the head of government. The leader who is at the head of the monarchy is called a monarch. The strong position of the hereditary monarch was attributed to the fact that the royal family of Laos had been extremely loyal to the French. Indeed, the majority of the Bhutanese population was, in fact, against the reforms (e.g. These cases, however, refer to exceptional periods in the history of the countries. Although this network monarchy has been challenged, in particular by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted of power in a military coup, in 2006, it is evident that the concept is still highly relevant for describing the Thai form of governance. In 2012, Tupou V died, and was succeeded by his brother Tupou VI. There is no prime minister. Finally, three monarchies classified as democracies are not included in the V-dem dataset, namely Liechtenstein, Monaco and Tonga. In 2001, King Birendra was killed by a family member and King Gyanendra assumed the throne. [12] Full parliamentary republican systems that do not have a directly elected head of state usually use either an electoral college or a vote in the legislature to appoint the president. All countries where the monarch has been in position of powers in any of the four dimensions listed in Table 3 are included. It has elements of intergovernmentalism, with the European Council acting as its collective "president", and also elements of supranationalism, with the European Commission acting as its executive and bureaucracy. Such freedom can be seen in how Kuwaiti writers and thinkers speak their minds about the most important issues in their country and in the region. The results of the present study has demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between population size and the stability of semi-constitutional monarchies. In Greece, the monarchy was restored in 1935, after a referendum installed (and probably heavily rigged) by Prime minister and General Georgios Kondylis. The coup did not transform Thailand into a democracy, however. Such a conclusion is corroborated by the cases of Bhutan and Tonga, both of which are small and where the monarch is in possession of significant powers. A new constitution was adopted in 1978, and from that year, the Spanish monarch no longer possesses any significant powers. Based on the definition by Corbett et al. Absolute monarchies are systems where the monarch, the hereditary ruler, possesses powers to such an extent that the countries in question do not qualify as democracies. States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to regional authorities, but where constitutional authority ultimately remains entirely at a national level. In the Netherlands, the monarch is considered to have been powerful in 1945. In this respect, the Greek case provides an excellent illustration of how difficult it is for the monarch to coexist with party government, very much in line with Huntingtons (Citation1968, pp. Finally, there is a religious connection. . The prime minister is the nation's active executive, but the monarch still has considerable political powers that can be used at their own discretion. Since the dataset does not cover the period 20162017, I have for these two years classified the countries of the world into the categories democracy or autocracy.Footnote1 Countries classified as democracies by Boix, Miller and Rosato are included in the study. Countries that are semi-presidential republics include, but are not limited to: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Congo (Democratic Reppublic of the), Congo (Republic of the), East Timor, Egypt, France, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, 45 of the constitution) and the kings have come from the same family during the countrys independence, Lesotho is classified as a monarchy. . On a general level, there is very strong support for the assumptions laid out in the theoretical part of the study. However, with the election of 1917, power shifted from the king to the prime minister when the King accepted to appoint a government which enjoyed the support of a parliamentary majority. The third strategy available for the monarch was to try to maintain his or her power, for instance by allowing persons with a middle-class background to receive high positions in the government, by fighting modernisation or by intensifying repression. 5758). from 1994) and Freedom House has classified the country as free since 1993. Monarchical powers in democracies. The council is elected by the parliament, but it is not subject to parliamentary confidence during its fixed term. Yet, the results of the present study show, that monarchs have possessed significant powers in a substantial part of the democratic countries with a monarch as head of state. Countries that meet the criteria of democracy with a monarch as a head of state are consequently either constitutional monarchies or semi-constitutional monarchies. Lesotho, again, meets the criteria of democracy since 2002. Although, if a vote of no confidence is successful and they do not resign, it triggers the dissolution of the legislature and new elections (per section 92 of the, Some monarchs are given a limited number of discretionary, One of fifteen constitutional monarchies which recognize the. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. If the head of state took actions to dissolve the legislature, would he/she be likely to succeed? (Yes = responses 2 or 3). A crowned republic, also known as a monarchial republic, is an informal term that has been used to refer to a system of monarchy where the monarch's role may be seen as almost entirely ceremonial and where nearly all of the royal prerogatives are exercised in such a way that the monarch personally has little power over . The period 1688 to 1914 is bookmarked by a period of stagnation in the semi-absolutist Stuart period, and decline in the Windsor period. Bhutan 201416, Greece, 1874, 195566, Liechtenstein 19212017, Monaco 19622017, Thailand 1975, 198390, 19922005, 1113. It provided for a democratic form of government albeit with a hereditary monarch with powers to chair cabinet meetings and considerable veto powers in the legislative sphere (Digithque dematriaux juridiques et politiques). g HOS dissolution in practice (C) (v2exdfdshs, *_osp, *_ord). Belgium 1918, 1959, Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641914, 5566, Laos 195458, Lesotho 201316, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 190039, 442017, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Netherlands 1945, Spain 1977, Sweden 191117, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 192128. Semi-constitutional monarchic regimes emerge in former autocratic monarchies as they democratise and rarely persist for long periods. A second category is composed of somewhat larger countries, with a population ranging from 1 to 3 millions, whereas all other countries are considered large. 1914 qualify as a long-term semi-constitutional monarchy. 177191) launched the expression the kings dilemma in order to describe the challenges monarchs faced when trying to reconcile monarchic rule with strives for modernisation. The first one is made up of countries where the monarch has inherited at least some of his or her powers when the country transited from autocracy to democracy, after which democracy has become consolidated. The legend of what the different colours represent is found just below the map. As shown by Corbett et al. 180181). 2 The motivation for choosing 0.4 as a cut-off point is to make sure that no relevant case is left out from the study. His current research focuses on regime classifications and regime transitions. After the end of the German occupation, the country was ruled by a caretaker government, appointed by the monarch and functional for a short period, when the parliament had not yet become functional after the occupation. In 1935, military strongman Georgios Kondylis forced Prime Minister Tsaldaris to resign and reinstalled the semi-constitutional monarchic system. Also, combining all the rest of the dimensions makes little sense, since many of the questions from the V-dem dataset overlap, especially with reference to the powers in the executive sphere. Monarchy can be categorised into many types in this modern era: semi-constitutional monarchy, absolute monarchy, commonwealth realms, and subnational monarchy. Veenendaal (Citation2013, p. 58) notes that [i]n both countries, executive and judicial power is traditionally located in the hands of the Prince, who delegates this power to selfappointed government ministers and judges. Bhutan 200917, Greece 18641914, 1935, 5066, Liechtenstein 19212017, Lesotho 200216, Luxembourg 190039, Monaco 19622017, Spain 1977, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Belgium 190013, 191939, 4458, 602017, Denmark 19012017, Japan 19522017, Lesotho 2017, Netherlands 18881939, 19462017, Norway 190939, 19452017, Spain 19782017, Sweden 19182017, United Kingdom 18852017, Bhutan 200917, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 19002017, Greece 18641914, Italy 191921, Nepal 19912001, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 1113, Yugoslavia 192128. Laos gained its independence in 1953 but the semi-constitutional monarchic constitution had been adopted several years earlier, namely in 1947, in close cooperation with French officials. The present study takes as its point of departure the dataset by Boix et al. A combined head of state and head of government in the form of an executive president is either elected by the legislature or by voters after candidates are nominated for the post by the legislature (in the case of Kiribati), and they must maintain the confidence of the legislature to remain in office. The Crown is the source of these powers, but they are exercised by the federal and provincial governments.In theory, the Crown and its representatives (governors general, lieutenant governors) can reject . Altogether, 20 monarchies are classified as democracies during the time period 18002017 and the number of yearly observations amounts to 1,243.Footnote4. States in which political power is by law concentrated within one political party whose operations are largely fused with the government hierarchy (as opposed to states where the law establishes a multi-party system but this fusion is achieved anyway through electoral fraud or simple inertia). Based on purely constitutional provisions it can, indeed, be questioned whether Monaco actually qualifies as democracy (e.g. The powers of the monarch have been constitutionally weak ever since the country became independent in 1966. Of the 193 UN member states, 126 are governed as centralized unitary states, and an additional 40 are regionalized unitary states. I then proceeded by testing the assumption that semi-constitutional monarchies would emerge primarily in countries which transit from autocratic monarchies to democracies and that small size was conducive for the survival of the regime type in question. Kailitz, Citation2013; Magaloni, Citation2008). In many ways this make perfect sense; since there is no place for a powerful hereditary monarch in a democratic system, one could argue that systems with powerful monarchs do not qualify as democracies. Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641914, 5566, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 190039, Monaco 19622017, Spain 1977, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113. The crucial question is to draw a line between the two categories. A monarchy is a kind of government where the leader of a group, usually a family, inherits leadership by birth and rules a state or a polity for the entirety of his/her life or until abdication. Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? In almost all cases where a monarch has held powers in a democracy, the powers of the monarch are directly inherited' from or related to the pre-democratic era. (also Dahl & Tufte, Citation1973, pp. Applying a higher threshold, say 0.5. would be too strict in comparison with Boix, Miller and Rosato's threshold for inclusion in the category of democracies, and would, for instance, mean that the following countries, all classified as democracies by Boix et al. If the first option is chosen, power is transformed from the monarch to the people, whereby a democratic, constitutional monarchy emerges where the king reigns but does not rule (Huntington, Citation1968, p. 177). In Norway, again, article 3 of the constitution still proclaims that [t]he executive powers is vested in the King and article 12 that [t]he King himself chooses a Council', i.e. In essence, the more powers the monarch possesses, the less democratic the country. Patterns of emergence and consolidation of semi-constitutional monarchies 18002017. Liechtenstein, a microstate landlocked between Austria and Switzerland, is a semi-constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary prince as its head of state. Such cases include former British colonies in which the British monarch formally acts as head of state but where she is represented by a Governor-General. I have chosen to also include countries with scores equalling or exceeding 0.4 on the scale.Footnote2 Regarding the few countries not included in the V-dem dataset, they have been included in the study if they are classified as free by Freedom House. It has generally been pointed out that the case of Bhutan is unique in the sense that democratic reforms were voluntarily initiated by the king and not reluctantly, as a result of popular protests or demands. For the purpose of the present study, we are concerned with situations where absolute monarchies democratise, which means that the first and, particularly, the second strategies are relevant. It is particularly noteworthy that all three long-lasting semi-constitutional monarchies are characterised by their extreme smallness. However, the relationship between the king and the prime ministers has been conflict-ridden in the past. The second category consists of similar cases in which democracy did not consolidate, and the country returned to autocracy. Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641914, 5566, Laos 195458, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 190039, 442008, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Netherlands 1945, Spain 1977, Sweden 191116, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 19211928. Bhutan 201316, Greece 1874, 194666, Italy 191921, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 1944, Monaco 19622017, Sweden 191116, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Tonga 201217, Yugoslavia 192128. In Monaco, it is rather difficult to compare constitutional provisions with political practice, as there have been few conflicts between the Prince and the parliament. Note: EP=Executive powers; LP=Legislative powers; DPP=Domestic policy powers; DP=Dissolution powers. 174225; Corbett et al., Citation2017, pp. The exact political character of the European Union is debated, some arguing that it is sui generis (unique), but others arguing that it has features of a federation or a confederation. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states: Nations with limited recognition are in italics. In practice, from which of the following bodies does the head of government customarily seek approval prior to making important decisions on domestic policy? (Yes = 5, head of state). The old constitution, the Statuto Albertino, was still in force and gave the monarch far reaching powers. Bhutan 201316, Greece 1874, 19551966, Liechtenstein 19212017, Monaco 19622017, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113. Constitutional provisions for government are suspended in these states; constitutional forms of government are stated in parentheses. The meaning of CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY is a system of government in which a country is ruled by a king and queen whose power is limited by a constitution. when countries move from autocracy to democracy for the first time), the regimes can eventually be substituted with authoritarian or democratic forms of government. Finally, I account for the ability of the monarch to dissolve the legislature, which is a power that affects the legislative sphere directly and the executive sphere indirectly (e.g. Yet, the question how much powers monarchs possess has not aroused a great deal of interest among political scientists. Nevertheless, there are many examples of political systems, classified as democracies by most reputable categorizations or indices, where the monarch has, or has had, more or less the same position as a president in semi-presidential systems. Whereas Greece has switched between republic and monarchic forms of governments, Thailand has remained a monarchy, but oscillated between democracy and military rule. The constitution allocates the rest of the government's power to the legislature and judiciary. In the second alternative, the monarch preserves a substantial part of his or her powers, but coexists with democratic institutions, and, very explicitly, with a prime minister who emerges from and/or is responsible to parliament. Afghanistan Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Benin Bolivia Botswana Brazil Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Table 4. Corbett et al. The first task of the study was to identify all democratic regimes in which the monarch has been in possession of executive or legislative powers during the time period 18002017. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. i HOS proposes legislation in practice (C) (v2exdfpphs, *_osp, *_ord) (yes = responses 0, 1). The third and fourth category refer to situations where the semi-constitutional monarchic form of government has emerged from an autocratic regime without a monarch as head of state, whereas the fifth and sixth categories describe situations where the semi-constitutional monarchic system has developed from another democratic form of government, and subsequently either democratised (the second last column) or not (the last column). Liechtenstein and Monaco are semi-constitutional, and Vatican City is a theocratic absolute elective monarchy. Ever since, the country has hovered between democracy and autocracy. Semi-constitutional monarchies with a ceremonial monarch, but where royalty still hold significant executive or legislative power Absolute monarchies where the monarch leads the executive One-party states (in principle republics) Countries where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended Bhutan had been a hereditary monarchy since 1907 when the country enacted a new constitution in 2008. In the V-dem dataset, the Belgian monarch is considered to have had a strong position with regard to government formation during the year 1918, the same year Belgium was liberated from German occupation. The second option was to combine monarchical powers with democracy, or, in Huntingtons (Citation1968, p. 180) words, to institutionalize competitive coexistence in the polity of two independent sources of power. Permission is granted subject to the terms of the License under which the work was published. After a short power struggle with holdovers from the Franco regime, democratic elections were held in 1977, and during this year, the monarch possessed considerable powers. In a directorial system, a council jointly exercise the powers and ceremonial roles of both the head of state and head of government. To some extent this makes perfect sense; since there is no place for a powerful hereditary monarch in a democratic system, one could easily argue that such systems do not qualify as democracies. The most obvious example of this shortcoming concerns the link between size and democracy. The head of a monarchy is called a monarch.It was a common form of government across the world during the ancient and medieval times.. It can also be seen in the vibrant opposition, which is composed of . Skaaning, Citation2018, pp. The other plausible explanation for powerful monarchs in democracies is size. Establishing cut-off points along the power scale is highly problematic and, to a certain extent, arbitrary. Whereas, the relationship between presidents and prime ministers has been widely discussed in the literature on semi-presidentialism (e.g. [note 12]. In 1922, Benito Mussolini became prime minister and the short democratic period ended. The head of state is ordinarily called a president and (in full parliamentary republics) is separate from the head of government, serving a largely apolitical, ceremonial role. Values have also been compared with the scores countries have received on the Polity 2 scale (an effective measure of the degree of democracy, ranging from 10 to +10) in the Polity IV-dataset (Marshall et al., Citation2018). Confederacy (Confederation) - a union by compact or treaty between states, provinces, or territories, that creates a central government with limited powers; the constituent entities retain supreme authority over all matters except those delegated to the central government. Greeces period as a semi-constitutional monarchic system ended when disagreements between Prime Minister Venizelos and King Constantine regarding whether Greece should join forces with the allies or remain neutral during World War I led to the breakdown of the democratic system in 1915. The unique symbiosis between the monarchy and the military has secured the position of the monarch, both in democratic and authoritarian eras. Systems in which a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government.

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