The legend of what the different colours represent is found just below the map. This restoration of the monarchy is best explained from a political actor perspective. Systems in which a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government. Bhutan 201416, Greece 1874, 195566, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 1944, Monaco 19622017, Sweden 191116, Thailand 1975, 8390, 922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 192128. The country surpassed the threshold of democracy in 1864, and is the first example of executive power sharing. 10271028). However, the monarch continued to be an influential (although not dominant) actor in Laotian politics until the end of the monarchy in 1975, when the communists came to power. In some cases, the prime minister is also leader of the legislature, while in other cases the executive branch is clearly separated from legislature (although the entire cabinet or individual ministers must step down in the case of a vote of no confidence). 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. Despite being a semi-constitutional monarchy, its citizens enjoy a margin of freedom that those in other Gulf countries do not. Huntington (Citation1968, pp. To begin with, some conceptual clarifications are needed. After the fall of the military regime, voters approved the introduction of a republican form of government by a clear majority. (Citation2013; Citation2018), who make use of a dichotomous qualitative scale, classifying more than 200 countries as either democracies or autocracies on a yearly basis for the time period 18002015. [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. He has published widely in the field of political science. Liechtenstein, a microstate landlocked between Austria and Switzerland, is a semi-constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary prince as its head of state. 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. These systems are of little interest for the purpose of the present study. 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. 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. Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion in Thailand. We can then give a final assessment of how our two plausible explanations of monarchic power fare. He came to power in 1964, and almost immediately clashed with prime minister Papandreou over the control of the military. In some constitutional monarchies, like in Japan or Norway, the monarch is only a symbolic head of state without . 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. 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. a constitutional crisis or a political deadlock). Whereas, the relationship between presidents and prime ministers has been widely discussed in the literature on semi-presidentialism (e.g. Iyer, Citation2019; Muni, Citation2014). 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. In full presidential systems, the president is both head of state and head of government. Although Governor-Generals are formally appointed by the British monarch, their connection to the British Crown is often very vague. Semi-constitutional monarchic regimes emerge in former autocratic monarchies as they democratise and rarely persist for long periods. Quite to the contrary, there are many indications that the new king is eager to increase his powers (Mrieau, Citation2017). Commonly, monarchies are classified into absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies, but since this classification essentially is based on the powers the monarch possesses, the difference between the categories is one of degree rather than kind. 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. 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 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. 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. (also Dahl & Tufte, Citation1973, pp. 174225; Corbett et al., Citation2017, pp. 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. 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. 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. Bhutan, Cambodia, Japan, and Thailand have constitutional monarchies where the monarch has a limited or ceremonial role. In 2012, Tupou V died, and was succeeded by his brother Tupou VI. Smallness, Corbett et al. a government led by a prime minister. 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. When monarchies form the object of research, focusing exclusively on constitutional provisions is likely to aggrandise the powers of the monarch. However, he is limited in some small respect, perhaps by a pro-monarchist constitution. Unlike in Sweden and Spain, where the monarch retained some powers during a transitional phase as democracy consolidated, the Yugoslavian monarch gradually increased his powers, and in 1929, he abolished the constitution and concentrated powers into his own hands, thus returning Yugoslavia to the category of autocratic systems. Although the current constitution still formally grants the Grand Duke a leading role in the executive sphere and the power to appoint and dismiss members of the government as well as the power to dissolve the legislature at will, the monarch of Luxembourg possesses significantly less powers in practise. Under other classification systems, however, these systems may instead be classed as semi-presidential systems (despite their weak presidency). Constitutional monarchies and semi-const . https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2020.1824360, http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/la1949.htm, http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/To-Politevma/Syntagmatiki-Istoria/, http://theconversation.com/seeking-more-power-thailands-new-king-is-moving-the-country-away-from-being-a-constitutional-monarchy-71637, https://doi.org/10.33167/2184-2078.RPCP2018.10/pp.65-76, Thailand 1975, 198390, 19922005, 201113, 2.Relative power of monarch equals or is stronger than power of PM, Belgium 1918, 1959, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 1944, Monaco 19622017, Netherlands 1945, Sweden 191116, Yugoslavia 192128, Bhutan 2016, Greece 18641914, Laos 195458, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 1944, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Netherlands 1945, Sweden 191117, Thailand 1975, 198390, 922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 192128, Bhutan 201417, Greece 18641907, 191114, 195566, Laos 195458, Lesotho 201316, Liechtenstein 19212017, Luxembourg 190039, 442017, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Spain 1977, Thailand 1975, 198390, 19922005, 201113, Yugoslavia 192128, Belgium 18941913, 191839, 19462017, Denmark 190142, 19452017, Greece 186499, 1935, 194666, Italy 191921, Japan 19522017, Luxembourg 190039, 19442017, Monaco 19622017, Nepal 19912001, Netherlands 18881939, 1945, Norway 190539, 19452017, Spain 19772017, Sweden 191175, United Kingdom 18852017, Yugoslavia 192128, 6. 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 number of cases varies between 72 and 386 and the number of countries between 4 and 13. from 1994) and Freedom House has classified the country as free since 1993. 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. Jordan - Semi-Constitutional Monarchy Monarch: King Abdullah II Like Bahrain, Jordan has a king who has more power than a conventional constitutional monarch, but there is a government beneath him that also has the power to independently make decisions. Patterns of emergence and consolidation of semi-constitutional monarchies 18002017. In 1967, the military coup ended the monarchy and when Greece returned to democracy in 1974 it adopted a republican parliamentary system in which the president effectively had very few powers. Based on the few studies that have been conducted in the field, there are two plausible explanations for why powerful monarchs occur in democratic settings. In 1935, military strongman Georgios Kondylis forced Prime Minister Tsaldaris to resign and reinstalled the semi-constitutional monarchic system. 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.