King Charles III is crowned and millions of people watch the spectacle. But not only in Great Britain there is still a monarch.
Charles III is crowned King of the United Kingdom and is thus Head of State of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, 14 other countries belong to the British Commonwealth. Altogether there are still 43 monarchies worldwide. “Statista” has prepared an overview map for this purpose.
What is a monarchy anyway?
Basically, a monarchy is a form of government in which the head of state is a monarch, for example a king or an emperor. This is not elected by the people as in a democracy. However, there are different forms of a monarchy.
In absolute monarchy, all power of the state rests with the monarch. This means that the monarch decides on laws, assigns offices and ultimately determines everything that happens in the state.
There is also the constitutional or parliamentary monarchy: With this form of government there is a constitution whose laws the monarch must also adhere to. In these countries there is also a strong representation of the people, for example in the form of a parliament. The politicians make laws and the monarch has little power. Usually he only has the task of representing the state.
A semi-constitutional monarchy fulfills some of the requirements of a constitutional monarchy, but not all. For example, while the monarch is bound by the law, he has more power than the politicians.
Absolute monarchies have become rare
The overview shows that very few monarchies are still absolute or semi-constitutional. In most countries, the monarchs therefore no longer have much power.
The only absolute monarchies in the world are currently the Gulf States with the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman and Qatar. But Pope Francis also holds absolute power in the Vatican State.
The semi-constitutional monarchies include Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as other Persian Gulf countries. But Liechtenstein also belongs to this group.
Constitutional monarchies like Britain
Great Britain is one of the parliamentary monarchies. King Charles III therefore has only little power and primarily fulfills representative tasks. The most important government decisions, on the other hand, are made by Parliament.
Similarly, most of the world’s current monarchies are either constitutional or parliamentary. Japan is the only empire and the oldest monarchy in the world. Here, too, the Emperor primarily performs representative tasks.
