Crowned republic

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A crowned republic, or crowned democracy, is a form of constitutional monarchy where the monarch's role is commonly seen as largely ceremonial and where all the royal prerogatives are prescribed by custom and law in such a way that the monarch has limited discretion over governmental and constitutional issues.

The term has been used to informally describe governments of various realms, including Norway, Japan, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It can refer to a constitutional monarchy where the sovereign personally exercises little discretion over the country's political or executive affairs, whether legally vested with ultimate executive authority or not.

Definition

As it is an informal term there is no set definition as to what a crowned republic means and what precisely constitutes the difference between a constitutional monarchy and a "crowned republic". Subsequently, different individuals have described various states as crowned republics for varied reasons. For example James Bryce wrote in 1921 that "By Monarchy I understand the thing not the Name i.e. not any State the head of which is called King or Emperor, but one in which the personal will of the monarch is constantly effective, and in the last resort predominant, factor of government. Thus, while such a monarchy as that of Norway is really a Crowned Republic, and indeed a democratic republic, monarchy was in Russia before 1917, and in Turkey before 1905, and to a less degree in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until 1918, an appreciable force in the conduct of affairs".^[1]

Australia, for example, has been referred to as a crowned republic,^[2][3] with the Australian Republic Advisory Committee having described the country as a crowned republic stating it is "a state in which sovereignty resides in its people, and in which all public offices, except that at the very apex of the system, are filled by persons deriving their authority directly or indirectly from the people" so "it may be appropriate to regard Australia as a crowned republic". ^[4]

The novelist and essayist H. G. Wells used the term to describe the United Kingdom,^[5] as did Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his poem Idylls of the King.^[6]

In the Kingdom of Greece, the term Βασιλευομένη Δημοκρατία (Vasilevoméni Dimokratía, literally crowned democracy or crowned republic) became popular after the 23 October 1862 Revolution, which saw the introduction of the 1864 constitution.^[7] The Constitution of 1952 enshrined this into the law, by declaring the form of government to be a Crowned Republic.^[8]

See also

• Popular monarchy

References

References

• Bryce, James (1921). Modern democracies. 2. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4179-1173-5.
• Patmore, Glenn (2009). Choosing the Republic. University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 1-74223-015-6.