It simultaneously combines monarchical and democratic institutions. The degree of their correlation, as well as the level of real power of the crowned person, differ significantly in different countries. Let's find out in more detail what constitutes a constitutional monarchy and what are the features of this form of government.
The essence of the term
A constitutional monarchy is a special type of state structure in which the monarch, although formally considered the head of state, but his rights and functions are largely limited by the legislation of the country. Without fail, this restriction should not only be of a legal nature, but also actually applied.
At the same time, it should be noted that there are countries in which the crowned person has rather high powers, despite the restrictions, and such states where the role of the monarch is purely nominal. Unlike a republic, a constitutional monarchy is often characterized by a hereditary form of transfer of power, although its real volume can be minimized.
Classification of monarchies
A constitutional monarchy is just one of the many types that a monarchical structure can take. This form of government can be absolute, theocratic (power belongs to the religious head), estate-representative, early feudal, ancient Eastern, non-hereditary.
Absolute and constitutional monarchy differ mainly in the fact that in the first of them any decision of the ruler has the force of law, and in the second the will of the monarch is largely limited by domestic laws and norms. Therefore, these forms of government are considered to be largely opposite to each other.
At the same time, within the concept of "constitutional monarchy" there is a division into two groups: dualistic and parliamentary.
Dualistic monarchy
Such a form of government as a dualistic monarchy implies a significant participation of the crowned person in public affairs. Often, the ruler is a full-fledged head of state with most of the rights and functions that follow from this, but they are somewhat limited by law.
In such states, the monarch has the right to personally appoint and remove the government of the country. The limitation of the power of the crowned person is most often expressed in a decree that all her orders take legal force only after they are confirmed by the minister of the relevant department. But, given that the ministers are appointed by the ruler himself, these restrictions are largely formal.
In fact, the executive power belongs to the monarch, and the legislative power belongs to the parliament. At the same time, the ruler can veto any law passed by parliament, or dissolve it altogether. The limitation of the power of the monarch lies in the fact that the aforementioned legislature approves or rejects a special budget approved by the crowned, but in the latter case risks being dissolved.
Thus, in a dualistic monarchy, the ruler is the legal and de facto head of state, but with limited rights by law.
Parliamentary monarchy
The most limited constitutional monarchy has a parliamentary form. Often in a country with such a state structure, the role of the monarch is purely nominal. He is a symbol of the nation and a formal head, but has practically no actual power. The main function of the crowned person in such countries is representative.
The government is responsible not to the monarch, as is customary in dualistic monarchies, but to parliament. It is formed by the legislature with the support of the majority of parliamentarians. At the same time, the crowned person often does not have the right to dissolve the parliament, which is democratically elected.
At the same time, some formal functions still remain with the nominal ruler. For example, he often signs decrees appointing ministers selected by the legislature. In addition, the monarch represents his country abroad, performs ceremonial functions, and at critical moments for the state, he can even assume full power.
Thus, in a parliamentary form, the monarch has neither legislative nor executive power. The first belongs to parliament, and the second belongs to the government, which is accountable to the legislature. The head of government is the prime minister or an official similar to him in functions. A parliamentary monarchy most often corresponds to a democratic political regime.
The birth of constitutionalism
Let's trace how this form of government has developed over the centuries.
The formation of a constitutional monarchy is associated with the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688. Although before this period there were countries with forms of government in which the power of the king was significantly limited by the feudal elite (the Holy Roman Empire, Rzeczpospolita, etc.), but they did not correspond to the modern meaning of this term. So, in 1688, as a result of a coup d'état, the Stuart dynasty that ruled in England was deposed, and William III of Orange became king. The very next year, he issued a Bill of Rights, which significantly limited royal power and gave parliament very large powers. This document laid the foundation for the formation of the current political system in Great Britain. The constitutional monarchy in England finally took shape in the 18th century. 
Further development
After the Revolution of 1789, a constitutional monarchy was actually introduced in France for some time. But it did not last long, until 1793, when the king was deposed and executed. The days of the republic came, and then the Napoleonic empire. Thereafter, a constitutional monarchy existed in France from 1830 to 1848 and from 1852 to 1870.
Sweden and Norway were named constitutional monarchies in 1818, when the Bernadotte dynasty began to rule there, the ancestor of which was a former Napoleonic general. A similar form of government has been established in the Netherlands since 1815, in Belgium since 1830, and in Denmark since 1849.
In 1867, the Austrian Empire, which had previously been the mainstay of absolutism, was transformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which became a constitutional monarchy. In 1871, the German Empire was formed, which also had a similar form of government. But both states ceased to exist as a result of defeat in the First World War.
One of the youngest monarchical systems with a constitutional order is the Spanish. It arose in 1975, when, after the death of dictator Franco, King Juan Carlos I ascended the throne.
Constitutionalism in the Russian Empire
Discussions about the possibility of limiting the power of the emperor by the constitution began to be conducted among the advanced representatives of the nobility at the beginning of the 19th century, during the time of Alexander I. The famous uprising of the Decembrists of 1825, its main goal was to abolish the autocracy and establish a constitutional monarchy, but it was suppressed by Nicholas I.
Under the reformer Tsar Alexander II, who abolished serfdom, certain steps were taken by the authorities in the direction of limiting autocracy and the development of constitutional institutions, but with the assassination of the emperor in 1881, all these initiatives were frozen.
The 1905 revolution showed that the existing regime in its previous form has outlived its usefulness. Therefore, Emperor Nicholas II gave the go-ahead for the formation of a parliamentary body - the State Duma. In fact, this meant that from 1905 a constitutional monarchy was established in Russia in its dualistic form. But this form of state structure did not last long, since the February and October revolutions of 1917 marked the beginning of a completely different socio-political system.
Contemporary examples of constitutional monarchies
Morocco and Jordan are the most pronounced dualistic monarchies of the modern world. With reservations, you can add to them the European dwarf states of Monaco and Liechtenstein. Sometimes this form of government includes the state structure of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, but most political scientists consider them nevertheless closer to absolutism.
The most famous examples of parliamentary monarchy are represented by the state structure of Great Britain and its former dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand), Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Japan and other countries. It should be noted that there are much more states representing this form of government than dualistic ones.
The meaning of the form of government
Thus, we can state the fact that the constitutional monarchy in its various forms is a fairly common form of government. In many countries, it has existed for hundreds of years, while in others it has been established relatively recently. This means that this type of state structure remains quite relevant today.
If in the parliamentary form the formal supremacy of the monarch is associated more with respect for history and traditions, then the dualistic view is a way to limit the level of concentration of power in one hand. But, of course, each country has its own characteristics and nuances of the formation and functioning of this type of state structure.
The constitutional monarchy, where it exists today, is a relic of bygone eras, a tribute to the national tradition. In the foundation of the collective consciousness of many peoples, since the Middle Ages and modern times, the image of a monarchical person has been laid - the personification of a nation, its main dignity. A striking example of this attitude towards its ruler
is the surrender of Japan in World War II. The only condition
nominated by the Japanese, was the preservation of imperial power in the country. However, his status has changed a lot. The emperor abandoned claims to divine origin, lost the levers of government, while remaining a symbol of the nation. Japan today is one of the classic examples of constitutional monarchy. In general, there are not so many such countries in the world.
The origin of constitutional monarchies. Historical aspect
Strictly speaking, the classical monarchical form of government was born and developed precisely in Europe in medieval times. However, the New Time and the age of the National Enlightenment gave the world new ideas about how the state should be run and what exactly will bring happiness to people. From the course of school history, all of us today know about revolutions, the construction of socialist and liberal-economic states, the progressive expansion of rights to all new categories of the population. The wave of suffrage began in Europe and swept across the world. This led to the fact that the royal person was no longer a priori an autocratic element. Somewhere, like in Germany or Russia, emperors were overthrown.
But in those countries that did not experience major revolutionary upheavals, the tsarist dynasty often found itself in the role of an archaic appendage. To get out of this situation, such a concept as a constitutional monarchy was created. This format of government assumes that all the fullness of power in the state is transferred to the people who elect parliament, and, directly or indirectly, to the cabinet of ministers with its head. Today, countries with a constitutional monarchy are England (as the most classic example), Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, a number of countries that are in the current British Commonwealth, such as Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand. Countries with this form of government include some Muslim states ruled by sheikhs: Kuwait, Bhutan, Morocco.
Features of constitutional monarchies in different regions
With all this, the powers of the monarch in some cases are very different. If in England and Denmark the constitutional monarchy means that the dynasty is only a venerable symbol of the nation, which does not make any decisions regarding
domestic and foreign policy of the country, the powers of Juan Carlos in Spain
very serious and comparable to the powers of the president of many European states. Interestingly, Spain is one of those countries that experienced the expulsion of the king in the thirties. However, as a result of the civil war of 1936-39. reactionary forces came to power there, returning the royal throne to the country. However, before the fall of this reaction, the king was also a symbolic figure under the dictator. And the Sultan of Brunei, who is the full head of the country, has comparatively broad powers.
| P / p No. | Region | Country | Form of government |
| E V R O P A | United Kingdom (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) | KM | |
| Spain (Kingdom of Spain) | KM | ||
| Belgium (Kingdom of Belgium) | KM | ||
| Netherlands (Kingdom of the Netherlands) | KM | ||
| Monaco (Principality of Monaco) | KM | ||
| Liechtenstein (Principality of Liechtenstein) | KM | ||
| Sweden (Kingdom of Sweden) | KM | ||
| Norway (Kingdom of Norway) | KM | ||
| Denmark (Kingdom of Denmark) | KM | ||
| Luxembourg (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) | KM | ||
| Andorra (Principality of Andorra) | KM | ||
| Vatican | ATM | ||
| A Z I Z | Brunei (Brunei Darussalam) | ATM | |
| Saudi Arabia (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) | ATM | ||
| Qatar (State of Qatar) | AM | ||
| Oman (Sultanate of Oman) | AM | ||
| Kuwait (State of Kuwait) | KM | ||
| Bahrain (State of Bahrain) | KM | ||
| United Arab Emirates (UAE) | KM | ||
| Bhutan (Kingdom of Bhutan) | KM | ||
| Cambodia (Kingdom of Cambodia) | KM | ||
| Thailand (Kingdom of Thailand) | KM | ||
| Malaysia (Federation of Malaysia) | KM | ||
| Japan | KM | ||
| Jordan (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) | KM | ||
| AFRICA | Morocco (Kingdom of Morocco) | KM | |
| Swaziland (Kingdom of Swaziland) | KM | ||
| Lesotho (Kingdom of Lesotho) | KM | ||
| Oceania | Tonga (Kingdom of Tonga) | KM |
Note: CM is a constitutional monarchy;
AM - absolute monarchy;
ATM is an absolute theocratic monarchy.
Republican form of government originated in antiquity, but received the greatest distribution during the periods of modern and recent history. In 1991, there were 127 republics in the world, but after the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia, their total number exceeded 140.
In a republican system, the legislature usually belongs to the parliament and the executive to the government. At the same time, a distinction is made between presidential, parliamentary and mixed republics.
Presidential republic characterized by a significant role of the president in the system of state bodies, combining in his hands the powers of the head of state and the head of government. It is also called a dualistic republic, thus emphasizing the fact that strong executive power is concentrated in the hands of the president, and legislative power in the hands of parliament.
Distinctive features of this form of government:
Extra-parliamentary method of electing the president (either by the population - Brazil, France, or by the electoral college - the USA),
· Extra-parliamentary method of forming the government, that is, it is formed by the president. The president is both formally and legally the head of government (the post of prime minister is absent, as, for example, in the United States), or he appoints the head of government. The government is responsible only to the president, not to parliament, since only the president can dismiss him,
In general, with this form of government, the president has much greater powers compared to a parliamentary republic (he is the head of the executive branch, approves laws by signing, has the right to dismiss the government), but in a presidential republic, the president is usually deprived of the right to dissolve parliament , and parliament is deprived of the right to express no confidence in the government, but can remove the president (impeachment procedure).
The classic presidential republic is the United States of America. The US Constitution is based on the principle of separation of powers. According to this constitution, the legislative power belongs to the Congress, the executive power belongs to the President, and the judicial power belongs to the Supreme Court. The president, elected by an electoral college, forms the government from persons belonging to his party.
Presidential republics are common in Latin American countries. This form of government is also found in some countries in Asia and Africa. True, sometimes in these countries the power of the head of state actually goes beyond the constitutional framework, and, in particular, the Latin American presidential republics were characterized by researchers as super-presidential.
Parliamentary (parliamentary) republic characterized by the proclamation of the principle of the supremacy of parliament, to which the government bears full responsibility for its activities.
In such a republic, the government is formed by parliamentary means from among the deputies of the parties with the majority of votes in parliament. It remains in power as long as it has the support of the parliamentary majority. This form of government exists in countries with a developed, largely self-regulating economy (Italy, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Israel). Elections under such a system of democracy are usually held according to party lists, that is, voters do not vote for a candidate, but for a party.
The main function of parliament, besides the legislative one, is to control the government. In addition, the parliament has important financial powers, since it develops and adopts the state budget, determines the ways of the country's socio-economic development, and decides on the main issues of the state's domestic, foreign and defense policy.
The head of state in such republics, as a rule, is elected by parliament or by a specially formed wider collegium, which includes, along with members of parliament, representatives of the subjects of the federation or representative regional self-government bodies. This is the main form of parliamentary control over the executive branch.
In Italy, for example, the president of the republic is elected by members of both chambers at their joint meeting, but three representatives from each region, elected by regional councils, participate in the elections. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the President is elected by the Federal Assembly, consisting of members of the Bundestag and an equal number of persons elected by the Landtags of the states on the basis of proportional representation. In parliamentary republics, elections can also be general, for example, in Austria, where the president is elected by the population for a term of 6 years.
Under this form of government, one speaks of a "weak" president. Nevertheless, the head of state has rather broad powers. He promulgates laws, issues decrees, has the right to dissolve parliament, formally appoints the head of government (only the head of the party that won the election), is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, has the right to amnesty convicts.
The President, being the head of state, is not here the head of the executive branch, that is, the government. The prime minister is formally appointed by the president, but this can only be the head of the faction with a parliamentary majority, and not necessarily the head of the winning party. It should be noted that the government is competent to govern the state only when it enjoys the confidence of parliament.
Mixed republic(also called a semi-presidential, semi-parliamentary, presidential-parliamentary republic) - a form of government that cannot be considered a kind of either a presidential or parliamentary republic. Among the modern ones, the fifth republic in France (after 1962), Portugal, Armenia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Slovakia belong to the mixed ones.
A special form of government - socialist republic (which arose in the XX century in a number of countries as a result of the victory of socialist revolutions). Its varieties: the Soviet Republic and the People's Democratic Republic (the former USSR, the countries of Eastern Europe until 1991, as well as China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, which remain socialist republics today).
The republican form of government can be considered the most progressive and democratic. It was chosen for themselves not only by economically developed states, but also by most of the countries of Latin America that freed themselves from colonial dependence in the last century, and almost all the former colonies in Asia that gained independence in the middle of this century, as well as African states, most of which achieved independence only in the 60-70s of the XX century. and even later.
At the same time, it should be borne in mind that such a progressive form of government does not at all unify the republics. They differ quite significantly from each other politically, socially and in other respects.
It should be noted a peculiar form of government - interstate associations: Commonwealth, led by Great Britain (Commonwealth) and Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS, which includes Russia).
Legally, the British Commonwealth of Nations was formed back in 1931. Then Great Britain and its dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Newfoundland and Ireland - entered it. After World War II and the collapse of the British colonial empire, the Commonwealth included the absolute majority of the former possessions of Britain - about 50 countries with a total territory of more than 30 million km 2 and a population of over 1.2 billion people, located in all parts of the world.
Members of the Commonwealth have the unconditional right to unilaterally withdraw from it whenever they wish. It was used by Myanmar (Burma), Ireland, Pakistan. All states of the Commonwealth have full sovereignty in their internal and external affairs.
In the states of the Commonwealth, which have a republican form of government, the Queen of Great Britain is proclaimed "the head of the Commonwealth ... a symbol of the free association of independent states - its members." Some of the members of the Commonwealth - Canada, the Australian Union (Australia), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Mauritius, Jamaica and some others - are officially referred to as "states within the Commonwealth." The supreme power in these countries formally continues to belong to the British monarch, who is represented in them by the governor-general, who is appointed on the recommendation of the government of this state. The supreme body of the Commonwealth is the conference of heads of government.
In 1991, simultaneously with the signing of the Belovezhskaya agreements on the dissolution of the USSR, it was decided to create Commonwealth of Independent States(Russia, Ukraine, Belarus). Subsequently, all the former republics of the USSR joined the CIS, except for the three Baltic states. Objectives: to promote the integration of the CIS member states in the economic, political and humanitarian fields, to maintain and develop contacts and cooperation between peoples, state institutions of the Commonwealth countries. The CIS is an open organization for the accession of other countries. Over the years, within the framework of the CIS, sub-regional associations have emerged: the Central Asian Economic Community (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine were accepted as observers) and GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova). In 1996, the Customs Union was created, uniting the economic space of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (later Tajikistan joined them. In October 2000, on the basis of the customs union, the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) was formed. CIS and military-political associations (for example, the Collective Security Treaty) In September 2008, after the conflict in South Ossetia, Georgia announced its desire to secede from the Commonwealth.
Form of government(administrative-territorial structure of states) is an important element of the political map of the world. It is directly related to the nature of the political system and the form of government, reflects the national-ethnic (in some cases also confessional) composition of the population, the historical and geographical features of the formation of the country.
There are two main forms of administrative-territorial structure - unitary and federal.
Unitary state - This is a single integral state formation, consisting of administrative-territorial units that are subordinate to the central authorities and do not possess signs of state sovereignty. In a unitary state, there is usually a single legislative and executive branch, a single system of state bodies, and a single constitution. The overwhelming majority of such states in the world.
Federation - a form of structure in which several state formations, legally possessing a certain political independence, form one union state.
Characteristic features of a federation:
The territory of the federation consists of the territories of its individual subjects (for example, states - in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, India, USA; provinces - in Argentina, Canada; cantons - in Switzerland; lands - in Germany and Austria; republics, as well as other administrative entities (autonomous okrugs, territories, regions - in Russia);
The subjects of the federation are usually vested with the right to enact their own constitutions;
The competence between the federation and its subjects is delimited by the federal constitution;
Each subject of the federation has its own legal and judicial system;
In most federations, there is a single union citizenship, as well as the citizenship of union units;
The federation usually has a unified military force, a federal budget.
In a number of federations, the union parliament has a chamber that represents the interests of the members of the federation.
However, in many modern federal states, the role of general federal bodies is so great that in essence they can be regarded as unitary rather than federal states. So, the constitutions of such federations as Argentina, Canada, USA, FRG, Switzerland do not recognize the federation members' right to withdraw from it.
Federations are built on territorial (USA, Canada, Australia, etc.) and national characteristics (Russia, India, Nigeria, etc.), which largely determine the nature, content and structure of government.
Confederation - it is a temporary legal union of sovereign states, created to ensure their common interests (members of the confederation retain their sovereign rights both in internal and external affairs). Confederate states are short-lived: they either disintegrate or turn into federations (examples: the Swiss Union, Austria-Hungary, as well as the United States, where a federation of states was formed from the confederation established in 1781, enshrined in the US Constitution of 1787).
Most of the world's states are unitary. Today only 24 states are federations (Table 4).
A monarchic state or, in other words, a monarchy is a state in which power, in whole or in part, belongs to one person - the monarch. It can be a king, king, emperor, or, for example, a sultan, but any monarch rules for life and passes on his power by inheritance.
Today there are 30 monarchical states in the world and 12 of them are monarchies in Europe. the list of countries-monarchies located in Europe, which is given below.
List of countries-monarchies in Europe
1. Norway - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
2. Sweden - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
3. Denmark - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
4. Great Britain - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
5. Belgium - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
6. Netherlands - kingdom, constitutional monarchy;
7. Luxembourg - duchy, constitutional monarchy;
8. Liechtenstein - principality, constitutional monarchy;
9. Spain - kingdom, parliamentary constitutional monarchy;
10. Andorra - principality, parliamentary principality with two co-rulers;
11. Monaco - principality, constitutional monarchy;
12. Vatican - papal state, elective absolute theocratic monarchy.
All monarchies in Europe are countries in which the form of government is a constitutional monarchy, that is, one in which the power of the monarch is significantly limited by the elected parliament and the constitution adopted by it. The only exception is the Vatican, which is ruled by an elected Pope.
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY, (limited monarchy) a kind of monarchical form of government, in which the power of the monarch (see MONARCH (head of state)) is limited by the constitution, there is an elected legislative body, parliament and independent ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
A state in which the power of the head is limited by the constitution. An explanation of the 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. Mikhelson AD, 1865. CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY A state in which the power of the head ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
a constitutional monarchy- Monarchy, where the power of the monarch is limited by the constitution, i.e. legislative functions are transferred to parliament, and executive functions to the government ... Geography Dictionary
A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY- a kind of monarchical form of government, a state in which the power of the monarch is significantly limited by an elected representative body (parliament). This is usually determined by the constitution, which the monarch cannot change. As a rule, K.m. ... ... Legal encyclopedia
A constitutional monarchy- (English constitutional monarchy) a state structure in which the power of the monarch (king, emperor, etc.) is limited by the constitution (legislative functions are transferred to parliament, executive government) ... Encyclopedia of Law
- (limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy), a form of government in which the power of the lifetime ruler - the monarch - is to some extent limited by one of the political institutions, which are the constitution, parliament, supreme ... ... Geographical encyclopedia
A constitutional monarchy- a monarchy in which the power of the monarch is limited by parliament (England, Belgium, Sweden) ... Popular political dictionary
a constitutional monarchy- see also. limited monarchy. a special kind of monarchical form of government, in which the power of the monarch is limited by the constitution, there is an elected legislative body, parliament and independent courts. It first appeared in the UK at the end of ... ... Big Law Dictionary
A form of government in which the monarch, although he is the head of state, however, unlike an absolute or unlimited monarchy, his power is limited by the constitution. K.m. it is customary to subdivide into dualistic and parliamentary. V… … Lawyer's Encyclopedia
See the article Monarchy ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Books
- Metamorphoses of the history of Russia. Volume 3. Pre-capitalism and constitutional monarchy, LS Vasiliev. The third volume of the research project is devoted to the fourth metamorphosis of Russia. The reforms of the 1860s and 1905 created a socio-political and private-law basis that made it possible to make a leap towards ...
- Metamorphoses of the history of Russia. Pre-capitalism and constitutional monarchy. Volume 3, Vasiliev LS .. The third volume of the research project is devoted to the fourth metamorphosis of Russia. The reforms of the 1860s and 1905 created a socio-political and private-law basis that made it possible to make a leap towards ...