Constitutional monarchies and semi-constitutional monarchies: a global historical study, 1800–2017

Abstract

The issue of executive power sharing in democratic countries with a monarch as head of state has received little scholarly attention. In many ways this make perfect sense; since there is no place for a powerful hereditary monarch in a democratic system, one could argue that systems with powerful monarchs do not qualify as democracies. Nevertheless, there are many examples of political systems, classified as democracies by most reputable categorizations or indices, where the monarch has, or has had, more or less the same position as a president in semi-presidential systems. The aim of the present study is to study to what extent the occurrence of semi-constitutional monarchies, i.e. democratic regimes in which power is shared between a prime minister and a monarch, can be explained by reference to Huntington's notion of the King's dilemma and the size of countries. The study is global and encompasses the time period 1800-2017.

Classifying forms of government on a global scale

“…The most important contribution of this study to the literature is the semi-monarchial form. The term semi-constitutional monarchy is encountered in several studies (Anckar, 2020; Anckar and Fredriksson, 2018; Corbett et al, 2017; Schedler, 2010; Veenendaal, 2016) that mention it in the context of political regimes (forms of state). Anckar (2016: 90) labels this system as a semi (constitutional) monarchy (as a form of government) since the monarch shares constitutional power with the prime minister, just as the president does in semi-presidentialism.…”

Yari-Monarşi̇den Başkanliğa Türki̇ye’de Hükümet Si̇stemi̇ni̇n Evri̇mi̇

“…Yarı-monarşik hükümet sistemi yürütmenin iki başlı olduğu, saltanat usulü ile göreve gelen monarkın sembolik değil, kabineyi atama ve görevden alma, meclisi tatil ya da feshetme gibi gerçek yetkilere sahip olduğu hükümet sistemidir. Bununla beraber kabine hem devlet başkanına hem de yasama organına karşı sorumludur (Anckar, 2016(Anckar, , 2020Metin ve Ünal, 2022). Kanun-ı Esasî'nin öngördüğü yarı-monarşik hükümet sisteminde yürütmenin başı olan padişah saltanat usulü ile göreve gelirken (md.…”