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Constitutional monarchy is a type of government in which a sovereign can rule under the limits of a constitution. The text of the constitution or its principles limit the sovereign power, and subsequently, government ministers formulate parliamentary acts and assume responsibility for the government. However, the sovereign has to sign these acts, and constitutionally, they are considered to be acts of the sovereign, which is politically neutral authority. Aligned with the idea that “the king can do no wrong,” in a constitutional monarchy, the sovereign still keeps some ceremonial and formal powers (e.g., nomination of a prime minister or dissolution of parliament), as well as prerogative powers. The most important of the sovereign’s rights are the following: the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn (from Walter Bagehot’s “trinity of rights”).

Origins Of The Constitutional Monarchy

Constitutional monarchy developed from ancient and medieval types of monarchy; according to Aristotle’s classification of states, the monarchy is “the good government by one.” Generally, this type of governing is based on the premise of paternalism, the notion that a benevolent ruler is needed to care for the subjects of the kingdom. Monarchies have reflected the importance of conservatism and continuity in governance and in the institutions of a society and culture. In addition, monarchies have generally emphasized the importance of religion, with the monarch an agent of God, legitimized by the deity. Before the period of democratization, there were two types of European monarchies. The first was the aristocratic monarchy (e.g., feudal monarchy; it did not give the sovereign absolute power but only limited power regulated by the power of noblemen). The second was the absolute monarchy, which allowed kings to use nonregulated power. Absolute monarchy described, first, the European monarchies such as France and Spain from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and later on included Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Nevertheless, none of these monarchies were really absolute; in all there were some limits to the king’s power, mostly based on custom.

The division of powers characteristic of constitutional monarchy developed in connection with the emergence of the modern state in the seventeenth century in France (e.g., the centralized state with a well-defined territory and powerful governmental authority). In Britain, the absolute monarchy was introduced under the Tudor dynasty (Henry VIII and Elizabeth I); none of these monarchs were entirely absolute in authority, however, because they had “great regard for parliamentary conventions.” During the English Civil War (1642–1651), the monarchy was abolished. Parliament technically ruled supreme, although, in reality, Oliver Cromwell ruled as the country’s dictator. The monarchy was restored in 1660 after Cromwell’s death, but the growing power of the king sparked the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From then on, under Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the king was, and the sovereign still is, subordinated to the principles of a constitution (or constitutions, in other European monarchies). This means that Parliament, especially the House of Commons, shares the legislative power with the sovereign power and House of Lords.

With the development of the philosophy of rationalism, monarchy was justified by what was seen as its natural role as a governing institution, reflected in both history and tradition. This view was held until the period of democratization in the nineteenth century. According to Richard Rose and Dennis Kavanagh, there are two prerequisites that give monarchy a chance to function with democratic institutions: “the readiness” of the reigning family to withdraw from active politics (e.g., the willingness to self-impose these restraints) and, at the same time, “the repudiation” of its members from influence on politics without needing to reduce the symbolic role of the sovereign.

Democracy And The Monarchy

In a democratic system with a hereditary monarch, the role of the king or queen is nonpolitical (e.g., it is symbolic and ceremonial; the sovereign is a head of the state, a symbol of national unity, continuity, and tradition). According to Vernon Bogdanor, during the twentieth century, the sovereign’s constitutional power was reduced step by step in a number of areas critically important to the constitution, but the sovereign still kept a vast number of prerogative powers. The sovereign still holds a few formal executive powers that allow, for example, naming—but not choosing—the head of a cabinet who is not politically responsible to the sovereign but to the directly elected parliament. Nevertheless, decisions about government formation are left to politicians, so the sovereign plays no active role in them. The sovereign can use the granted power to appoint ministerial officeholders on the recommendation of the prime minister, too; the sovereign is politically nonresponsible but acts on the advice of the ministers, who are willing to assume responsibility for the sovereign’s acts. The sovereign is inviolable, too, and can exercise influence by using, according to Bagehot, “the rights to be consulted”; for example, consultations were an important point of the political game in the United Kingdom during the second half of the twentieth century. The sovereign in all constitutional monarchies can dissolve the parliament (on request), and also has some power that can be used in a constitutional emergency. Other important powers of the sovereign include: nominating judges (in cooperation with the executive), directing the armed forces, declaring war, making treaties, and regulating the civil service.

Constitutional monarchy in democratic states can survive only when monarchs accept their limited powers based on the constitutional text. Currently, there are only a few democratic constitutional monarchies in Europe: the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein; there are also a few outside Europe, such as Japan. The influence of sovereigns in these countries differs according to historical circumstances. For example, in Scandinavia the sovereigns and their families are very popular because they stress egalitarianism over many of the ancient symbols of royalty and wealth; Richard Rose mentions that they are popularly called “bicycling monarchs.” Spain, on the other hand, is unique among contemporary constitutional monarchies: after Francisco Franco’s death, new political leaders accepted the politically well-balanced role of Juan Carlos in transition to democracy and gave a way to restoring monarchy instead of introducing a republic. Another, rather specific case in the contemporary world is the British Commonwealth, an association of free, independent states (mostly republics) like Canada, Australia, and India. The nominal head of this postcolonial international association is the English sovereign, whose symbolic role was accepted by a free decision of democratically elected leaders of these previous British dominions, contrary to the hereditary character of this post in the United Kingdom.

Bibliography:

Blahož, Josef,Vladimír Balaš, and Karel Klíma. Srovnávací ústavní právo [Constitutional Law: Comparative Analysis], 2nd ed. Prague: ASPI Publishing, 2003.
Bogdanor,Vernon. The Monarchy and the Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Brazier, Rodney. “The Monarchy.” In The British Constitution in the Twentieth Century, edited by Vernon Bogdanor, 69–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Klokocka,Vladimír. Ústavní systémy evropských státu˚ [Constitutional Governments in Europe], 2nd ed. Prague: Linde Praha , 2006.
Neubauer, Zdeneˇk. Státovˇeda a teorie politiky [State, Law and Theory of Politics]. Prague: Slon, 2006.