Crowned republic

A crowned republic is a form of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy in which the monarch's role is predominantly ceremonial in practice, and where all of the monarch's royal prerogatives are prescribed by custom and law in such a way that the monarch has limited discretion over governmental and constitutional affairs.

The term has been used to describe governments of various realms, including Norway, and the United Kingdom. It can refer to a nation that is a nominal monarchy but in which the people by their citizenship may be seen as ultimately holding power over the nation's affairs. The sovereign often personally exercisey little political influence, whether vested with executive authority or not.

Definition

There is no one definition as to when constitutional monarchy is a crowned republic and different authorities have described different monarchies as such. 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".

Australia, for example, has been referred to as a crowned republic. The Australian Republic Advisory Committee, which was created in 1993 by Paul Keating, then Prime Minister, described the country as a crowned republic because they said it was "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" The head of state in Australia is not the reigning monarch, but rather a representative, the Governor-General, and thus the Queen (or King) acts as a ceremonial figurehead except in appointing the Governor-General.

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

See also

• Popular monarchy

References

• Bryce, James (1921). Modern democracies. Vol. 2. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4179-1173-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Patmore, Glenn (2009). Choosing the Republic. University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 1-74223-015-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)