Thus, much in line with Corbett et al. 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. At present, there are no signs that the new monarch, King Varjiralongkorn, would accept a mere ceremonial role in Thai politics. Table 1. 1 The basic strategy has been to compare Freedom Houses scores with Boix, Miller and Rosatos classifications during the period 20122015 and thereafter check if Freedom Houses scores have changed during the years 20162017. Therefore, their statuses resemble more a president in parliamentary systems than a monarch in a hereditary monarchy. The smallest category, then, is made up of states with a population of less than 1 million. In practice, Governor-Generals are chosen by the parliaments and/or prime ministers of the countries and often the persons chosen to this position are local politicians or dignitaries. The aim of the present study is to study to what extent the occurrence of semi-constitutional monarchies, i.e. [47], List of countries by system of government, Presidential systems without a prime minister, Presidential systems with a Supreme Leader, Presidential systems with a prime minister, Parliamentary republican and related systems, Parliamentary republics with an executive presidency, Constitutional monarchies with ceremonial/non-executive monarchs, Constitutional monarchies with active monarchs, Afghanistan: The United Nations currently recognizes the, Iran combines the forms of a presidential republic, with a president elected by universal suffrage, and a theocracy, with a. Table 4. V-dem database. 180181) prediction. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states: Full presidential systems In full presidential systems, the president is both head of state and head of government. Theoretically, it can be traced back to Ancient Greece, but so far, very few empirical studies have been conducted where size has been given the primary focus among the explanatory variables. These systems bear more resemblance to semipresidential systems than to parliamentary ones and therefore the label semi constitutional monarchy is used to denote them. For the purpose of the present study, it would, for instance, have been particularly useful to also account for to what extent the monarch is in control of foreign policy. The UK, for example, is a . Table 2. Most of the monarchies that exist in the world today are limited monarchies. [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. 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. The basic logic behind this statement is simple: a leader who has not been elected by the people has little or no legitimacy to rule in a democratic polity. During the Second World War, the king was in exile. Afghanistan Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Benin Bolivia Botswana Brazil Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad 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. In Greece, regime developments during the last 150 years have been a real roller-coaster ride. This finding alone, lays good ground for further research in the field. To begin with, some conceptual clarifications are needed. 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. Kanchoochat and Hewison (Citation2016, p. 377), for instance, maintain that the groups[making up] the network monarchy were energised by the rise of Thaksin and became united in opposition to pro-Thaksin governments. We can then give a final assessment of how our two plausible explanations of monarchic power fare. In general, the evidence supports Huntingtons argument in the sense that powerful monarchs have not been long-lived in democracies. Nevertheless, it is evident that in comparison with other monarchs operating within a democratic framework, the Prince of Monaco is an extremely powerful actor in terms of both constitution and practice (see Chagnollaud de Sabouret, Citation2015; DOnario, Citation2014). It is therefore essential to answer the questions why these systems anomalies and anachronisms emerge and persist. The president does not have the right to dismiss the prime minister or the cabinet. Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion in Thailand. The list is colour-coded according to the type of government, for example: blue represents a republic with an executive head of state, and red is a constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial head of state. A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy. 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. We use cookies to improve your website experience. Results are presented in Table 2 and they tell us that the number of cases and countries where a monarch possesses powers is surprisingly high. In mixed republican systems and directorial republican systems, the head of government also serves as head of state and is usually titled president. The results of the present study has demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between population size and the stability of semi-constitutional monarchies. [1] Under its constitution, the Chinese President is a largely ceremonial office with limited power. Often, these changes were not reflected in the constitutions of the countries. Religious authority: In some countries, the monarchy has a religious dimension, with the monarch States in which the national government shares power with regional governments with which it has legal or constitutional parity. In such systems, the president has genuine executive authority, but the role of a head of government may be exercised by the prime minister. Several states that are constitutional republics are in practice ruled as authoritarian states. (Citation2017), constitutional developments in Tonga constitute a very good example of the Kings dilemma. Here's Why. The monarch acts as both head of state and head of government. [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. One natural dividing line emerges impromptu, as there is a cluster consisting of the five miniature states Bhutan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Tonga. ago 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. 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. Smallness, Corbett et al. (Citation2017, p. 691). A combined head of state and head of government (usually titled president) is elected by the legislature but is immune from a vote of no confidence (as is their cabinet), thus acting more independently from the legislature. Belarus, Gabon and Kazakhstan, where the prime minister is effectively the head of government and the president the head of state, are exceptions. Based on a study of Bhutan, Liechtenstein, and Tonga, Corbett et al., Citation2017 (pp. Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a single Caribbean nation. The other plausible explanation for powerful monarchs in democracies is size. The are allowed to take sides politically but still bound by a constitution that limits what it can do with those unearthed political views. Thus, much in line with Corbett et al. . In semi-constitutional monarchies, however, the monarch retains power that is analogous to the power of a president in a republican system. (Citation2017), I therefore introduce an additional category labelled semi-constitutional monarchy. According to the constitution from 1962, the Prince is the dominant (in fact, the only) actor in the exercise of executive powers and has very far reaching powers in the legislative sphere; he has exclusive right to initiate laws, absolute veto powers and can dissolve the legislature at will. This cut-off point makes sense for two reasons. 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. The following countries have presidential systems where a post of prime minister (official title may vary) exists alongside that of the president. The long reign of King Bhumibol also meant that he could gradually consolidate his position as Pater Patriae. Semi-constitutionalism - where monarchs and elected representatives share powers - ranges from countries which let monarchs retain some powers next to an elected parliament to so-called . 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. The countries are included in the present study but their classifications along the nine power dimensions are based on other sources.Footnote3 Table 1 gives an overview of the population of cases. The period of 'semi-constitutional' monarchy in Britain was a period of vast expansion of power and influence in the world, not to mention the opening of commerce and prosperity. Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641914, 19551966, Lesotho 20132016, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 19001939, Monaco 19622017, Spain 1977, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113. In essence, the more powers the monarch possesses, the less democratic the country. In the data set by Boix et al. (Citation2017) point out that smallness is likely to counteract the gloomy prospects for the monarch outlined in the kings dilemma. In general, empirical findings strongly supported these propositions. 45 of the constitution) and the kings have come from the same family during the countrys independence, Lesotho is classified as a monarchy. 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). a government led by a prime minister. For the sake of parsimony, I restrict the analysis to four power dimensions. [3], Certain states have been defined as having more than one system of government or a hybrid system for instance, Poland possesses a semi-presidential government where the President appoints the Prime Minister or can veto legislation passed by parliament, but its Constitution defines the country as a parliamentary republic and its ministry is subject to parliamentary confidence.[4][5][6][7][8][9]. Country. . The death of King Bhumibol in 2016 has brought the question of monarchic powers to the fore in Thailand. 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. First, whereas there is already a quite extensive literature on executive power sharing between presidents and prime ministers, similar studies regarding the power-sharing arrangements between monarchs and prime ministers are, with very few exceptions, conspicuous by their absence. 334335). In the new constitution, adopted in the same year, the powers of the monarch were reduced substantially. Crowned republic. Second, physical factors have generally played a surprisingly subordinate role in comparative politics. However, the relationship between the king and the prime ministers has been conflict-ridden in the past. The constitution adopted the same year gave King Alexander I extensive powers. I also include a question measuring the influence of the monarch over domestic policy. The only country for which this assessment has been of relevance is Tonga, which is included in the population for the years 20122017. 699700). when countries move from autocracy to democracy for the first time), the regimes can eventually be substituted with authoritarian or democratic forms of government. The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. 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.
