Absolute and Constitutional Monarchy

Monarchy is the form of government is which political power is concentrated in the hand of individual, usually the king, Queen or Emperor. In the monarchical forms of government, there is the personification of power and sovereignty of the state in the King, Queen or Emperor. In this forms of government the ruler sometimes claims to have the divine right to rule his or her people. There two types of monarchy, absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy.

Absolute monarchy:    In this forms of monarchy, the ruler has unlimited powers. There is no constitutional established authority to check the power of the ruler. The ruler is both head of the state and government. Whatever this ruler says becomes a law and is binding on the people. The source of all political authority is found in this supreme rule. In absolute monarchy, all the organs and agents of  government are established for the purpose of carry out his will. All laws are his command, and the bearer of the sovereignty, his authority is supreme and unlimited. An example is Louis XIV who claimed to be the government and whatever he says goes.

Constitutional monarchy: This is the type of monarchy in which the power of the ruler is limited by the constitution. The fact that the power of the ruler is limited shows that there are some elements of democracy in the constitution monarch. Constitutional monarchy gives people the opportunity to participate in the governance of the state through their elected representative. The monarch is bound to respect both constitution and the laws of the state. Britain is an example of a state with constitutional monarch. Here, the Queen who is the monarchy does not exercise real authority. She is the ceremonial head of state while the actual functions of government are carried out by Minister who represents majority party in the legislature.

Merits of Monarchy

(1)    Monarchy represents a government which guarantees unity and orderliness in the state.

(2)    It possesses vigor, energy of action, promptness of decision, continuity and consistency of policy.

(3)    Monarchy is the beneficial antidote to chaos or weak government.

(4)    In a monarchical government, the ruler has the ability to deal with the emergency situation since he does not need to seek the advice of anybody before taking the action on emergency situation.

Demerits of monarchy

(1)  In most monarchical governments, especially in the absolute monarchy, people’s liberty and right are not guaranteed.

(2)  Sometimes the monarchy adopts the negative measure to firmly establish his authority, and these measures remain unquestionable.

(3)  The monarchy in the most cases never cherishes the interest of his subjects.

(4)  In the monarchical government, there is no guarantee that an able, capable and benevolent ruler must always succeed to the throne.