semi constitutional monarchy countries
This is notably the case regarding the power to appoint the prime minister. The aim of the present study is to study to what extent the occurrence of semi-constitutional monarchies, i.e. When measuring monarchical powers it is therefore advisable to rely on political practice rather than constitutions. The president chooses the prime minister and the cabinet without a confidence vote from the parliament, but must have the support of a parliamentary majority for their selection. In essence, this system makes it possible for the monarch to exercise his powers behind the scenes, for instance by working through proxies such as privy councillors and trusted military figures (McCargo, Citation2005, p. 501). To begin with, some conceptual clarifications are needed. The dataset does not contain extensive information on regime characteristics for the European miniature states Liechtenstein and Monaco. A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy. It is particularly noteworthy that all three long-lasting semi-constitutional monarchies are characterised by their extreme smallness. I then proceed by identifying the cases where the monarch has been powerful on the nine power dimensions of the V-dem dataset. The monarch acts as both head of state and head of government. However, within this category of countries the powers of the monarch can still vary, which makes it necessary to apply a further categorisation. 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. Italics indicate states with limited recognition. The military junta abolished the monarchy in 1973, in an attempt to consolidate its position. Semi-constitutional monarchic regimes emerge in former autocratic monarchies as they democratise and rarely persist for long periods. In a parliamentary republic, the head of government is selected or nominated by the legislature and is also accountable to it. 180181) prediction. All countries where the monarch has been in position of powers in any of the four dimensions listed in Table 3 are included. 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. The powers of the monarch have been constitutionally weak ever since the country became independent in 1966. Here, I have chosen to apply a generous criterion for inclusion in the category semi-constitutional monarchies. [32][33][dubious discuss] The head of state is a constitutional monarch who normally only exercises his or her powers with the consent of the government, the people and/or their representatives (except in emergencies, e.g. The authors define as semi-constitutional monarchies 'systems in which the actions of monarchs are circumscribed by a constitution, but in which monarchs, as independent and autonomous political actors, nonetheless have the capacity to exert a large measure of political influence' Corbett et al. Monarchical powers in democracies. The number of cases varies between 72 and 386 and the number of countries between 4 and 13. It is noteworthy that some scholars in the People's Republic of China claim that the country's system of government is a "semi-presidential system combining party and government in actual operation". The leader who is at the head of the monarchy is called a monarch. A state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme and any administrative divisions (sub-national units) exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. What local authorities do exist have few powers. For the next four decades, Thailand was ruled by the military, a period that ended when Thailand surpassed the threshold for democracy in 1974. [online] Retrieved May 30, 2016, from, Constitution-making in Bhutan: A complex and sui generis experience, Country size and the survival of authoritarian monarchies: Developing a new argument, Classifying political regimes revisited: Legitimation and durability, Introduction: Understanding Thailands politics, Millennialism, Theravada Buddhism, and Thai Society, Credible power-sharing and the longevity of authoritarian rule, Center for Systemic Peace, George Mason University, Network monarchy and legitimacy crises in Thailand, Seeking more power, Thailands new king is moving the country away from being a constitutional monarchy, More inequality, more killings: The Maoist insurgency in Nepal, Portugals semi-presidentialism (re)considered: An assessment of the presidents role in the policy process, 19762006, The Kingdom of Bhutan: A democracy by obligation, Review article: Citizens, presidents and assemblies: The study of semi-presidentialism beyond Duverger and Linz, Semi-presidential systems: Dual executive and mixed authority patterns, Democracy from above: Regime transition in the Kingdom of Bhutan, Different types of data and the validity of democracy measures. Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and north. [online] Retrieved February 10, 2019, from, Hellenic Parliament. Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a single Caribbean nation. States that have a system of government that is in transition or turmoil. 110111). To some extent, the two strategies overlap and merely reflect differences in degree rather than in kind. To some extent, all semi-constitutional monarchies operate in a gray area between autocracy and democracy. It can be readily assumed that the issue of how the powers of the monarch in relation to the prime minister should be measured will be crucial in future research efforts. A monarchy which has its power limited by a constitution is called a constitutional monarchy. 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. Table 3. One important difference between Liechtenstein and Monaco is that the principle of parliamentarism is not recognised in the Monegasque constitution (Grinda, Citation2007, p. 76, 88). In some constitutional monarchies, like in Japan or Norway, the monarch is only a symbolic head of state without . However, In Greece (18641914), Italy (19191921), Laos (19541958), Nepal (19912001), Thailand and Yugoslavia (19211928) the semi-constitutional monarchic system coincided with a transition to democracy, but in all these countries the democratic form of government subsequently broke down. Sweden, again, passed the threshold of democracy in 1911, when universal male suffrage was introduced. During his reign, it appears as the monarch has strengthened his powers, a fact which became apparent at the latest in August 2017, when the King dissolved the legislature, thereby indirectly dismissing the prime minister. The crucial question is to draw a line between the two categories. (Citation2017), constitutional developments in Tonga constitute a very good example of the Kings dilemma. These are systems in which a president is the active head of the executive branch of government, and is elected and remains in office independently of the legislature. First, it is uncontroversial, in the sense that it separates systems where the monarch has ceremonial powers only from systems where the monarch can exercise at least some influence in the political sphere. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. 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. The democratic era of Laos ended in 1959, after the military forced Prime Minister Sananikone to resign. Although the constitution was parliamentary and the prime minister was the dominant political actor, the king continued to exercise significant influence in the executive field. [1] Under its constitution, the Chinese President is a largely ceremonial office with limited power. Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Monaco have had powerful monarchs operating within a democratic context for many decades. i HOS proposes legislation in practice (C) (v2exdfpphs, *_osp, *_ord) (yes = responses 0, 1). 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. This finding alone, lays good ground for further research in the field. The powers of the monarchs are measured with reference to nine questions in the V-dem dataset. Type of monarchy. 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. This leaves us with 16 possible power combinations, presented in Table 3. 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). For these countries, classifications have been made by the author for the time periods for which data is lacking (Liechtenstein 18661990, Monaco 18621993). He came to power in 1964, and almost immediately clashed with prime minister Papandreou over the control of the military. Finally, three monarchies classified as democracies are not included in the V-dem dataset, namely Liechtenstein, Monaco and Tonga. 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. Corbett et al. The concept of semi-constitutional monarch identifies constitutional monarchies where the monarch retains substantial powers, on a par with a president in a presidential or semi-presidential system. 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