What Is a Monarchy? Absolute vs Constitutional, Explained

Monarchy in plain terms

The word comes from the Greek monarkhia, "rule of one." A monarchy is a system in which the head of state is a single person who holds that position by birth, by election from a small group, or by some other route that is not an ordinary popular vote, and who usually keeps it until death or abdication.

That definition covers very different countries. The King of Saudi Arabia makes laws and appoints the government. The King of Sweden has no political powers at all. Both are monarchs. What separates them is how much power the crown keeps and who checks it.

It helps to separate two roles that often get blurred:

1. Head of state. The person who formally represents the country, signs laws, receives ambassadors and embodies the nation.
2. Head of government. The person who actually runs the government and sets policy.

In an absolute monarchy one person holds both roles. In a constitutional monarchy the monarch is head of state, while a prime minister chosen through parliament is head of government. A republic, by contrast, fills the head of state role through election or appointment, as our guide to democracy vs republic explains.

Types of monarchy

Absolute monarchy

In an absolute monarchy the monarch is the final authority on law, policy and justice, and no constitution or elected body can overrule them. Advisers, councils and religious authorities may influence decisions, but the ruler is not legally bound by them.

Few absolute monarchies remain. Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman and Eswatini are usually placed in this category, along with Vatican City, where the pope holds full legislative, executive and judicial power. Several other Gulf states have elected bodies but still leave most real power with the ruling family. Political scientists who study regime types classify these states as a kind of authoritarian regime.

Constitutional monarchy

In a constitutional monarchy the monarch's powers are set out and limited by a constitution, written or unwritten. Britannica describes it as a system in which the monarch shares power with a constitutionally organized government, and notes that the monarch may be anything from a real political figure to a purely ceremonial one.

The UK is the best known example. The Royal Family's own account of the role says the Sovereign is head of state but has no political or executive role, and that laws are made by an elected Parliament. Other constitutional monarchies include Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

Some constitutional monarchs keep more power than others. In Morocco and Jordan, for example, the king retains significant authority over the government, so scholars sometimes call them semi-constitutional monarchies.

Hereditary and elective monarchy

Most monarchies are hereditary: the crown passes within a family according to a rule of succession. Many countries have changed those rules in recent decades so that the eldest child inherits regardless of sex.

An elective monarchy chooses its ruler. The Holy Roman Emperor was picked by a small group of princes known as electors. Today the pope is elected by the College of Cardinals, and the King of Malaysia is chosen every five years from among the hereditary rulers of nine Malaysian states, a rare example of a rotating crown.

How royal power was limited

For much of European history, monarchs claimed to rule by divine right: the idea that their authority came from God and that subjects had no right to resist. In 17th century England, that claim collided with Parliament.

After decades of conflict, including a civil war, the execution of Charles I in 1649 and a brief republic, the crisis came to a head in 1688. James II was pushed off the throne in what became known as the Glorious Revolution, and William III and Mary II took the crown on terms set by Parliament. The Bill of Rights of 1689 declared that the monarch could not suspend laws or raise money without Parliament's consent, that elections to Parliament ought to be free, and that debates in Parliament could not be questioned in any court.

The philosopher John Locke gave this settlement an intellectual backing, arguing that government rests on the consent of the governed rather than divine appointment. Our guide to the social contract covers that argument. Over the following centuries, power in Britain shifted from the crown to ministers and finally to the elected House of Commons, mostly through convention rather than a single written rule.

Revolution and republicanism

Others went further. In Common Sense (1776), Thomas Paine attacked hereditary rule as absurd, arguing that no one can be born with a right to govern others. The American and French revolutions turned that argument into new republics.

Defenders of monarchy pushed back. Edmund Burke argued that inherited institutions carry the accumulated wisdom of generations and should be reformed carefully, not torn down. The Savoyard writer Joseph de Maistre went further, defending throne and altar as the foundations of social order after the French Revolution. Those two lines of thought fed into modern conservatism and traditionalism.

A monarchy in the Americas

Monarchy was not only a European story. After independence from Portugal in 1822, Brazil became an empire. Its second emperor, Dom Pedro II, reigned from 1831 until 1889, presiding over a parliamentary system and, near the end, the abolition of slavery in 1888. A military coup the following year ended the monarchy and made Brazil a republic.

Monarchy around the world today

There are a little over 40 countries with a monarch as head of state. Fifteen of them are Commonwealth realms: independent countries that share the same monarch, currently King Charles III. They include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Papua New Guinea. Australia's government describes the King as Sovereign of 15 realms, each with its own laws and parliament.

In the realms outside the UK, the monarch is represented by a governor-general who carries out most formal duties. Whether to keep this arrangement is a live question in several of them:

• Australia held a referendum in 1999 on becoming a republic with a president chosen by parliament. The proposal was rejected with about 55% voting No, and it failed in every state.
• Barbados removed the monarch as head of state in 2021 and became a republic while staying in the Commonwealth.
• Canada would need the agreement of Parliament and every province to change the role of the crown, which makes change very hard in practice.

The case for and against monarchy

The case for

Supporters, often called monarchists, make several arguments in their own terms:

• A head of state above politics. A monarch has no party, no campaign donors and no election to win, so they can represent the whole nation, including people who lost the last election.
• Continuity and identity. A crown links a country to its history and gives citizens a shared symbol that outlasts any government.
• A check on ambition. Because the top job is already filled, politicians cannot seize the status of head of state, and the monarch can serve as a final safeguard in a constitutional crisis.
• It works. Supporters point out that several of the world's most stable and prosperous democracies, such as Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, are monarchies.

These ideas are central to constitutional monarchism. See how it differs from mainstream conservatism in conservatism vs constitutional monarchism, and from deeper traditionalism in constitutional monarchism vs traditionalism.

The case against

Republicans, in the sense of opponents of monarchy, answer:

• Equality. No one should hold public office because of who their parents were. An inherited head of state, critics say, sends the message that some citizens are born above others.
• Democratic choice. Citizens cannot choose or remove a monarch. Critics argue that every public office should be open to every citizen.
• Cost and privilege. Royal households are funded at least partly by the public, and critics question the cost and the privileges attached.
• Absolute monarchies. Where monarchs still rule, critics point to limits on political rights and free speech.

What the public thinks

Opinion is shifting slowly in several realms. In Britain, the British Social Attitudes survey found in 1983 that 86% said it was very or quite important for the country to continue to have a monarchy. By 2024 that figure had fallen to 51%, although only 15% said the monarchy should be abolished. In Canada, an Angus Reid Institute poll in April 2023 found that 52% of Canadians did not want the country to continue as a constitutional monarchy for generations to come. Support tends to be higher among older people in both countries.

Find where you fit

Your view of monarchy often tracks a deeper question: how much you value inherited institutions and continuity versus equality and open choice. People who lean toward tradition and gradual change tend to be warmer to constitutional monarchy, while those who prize equality and popular control tend to prefer an elected head of state.

The Political Values Test scores you on tradition versus progress as a separate axis. The 12 Axes Political Test matches you with 60 ideologies, from constitutional monarchism to republican traditions. For a quick check, try the Liberal or Conservative Quiz. You can also browse the UK prime ministers and Canadian prime ministers who governed under the crown, or read what is a conservative.