Absolute Monarchy in a Modern Setting

What's the point of voting then ?

Short story: Secret Test of Character. Long story: You have to determine whether one will have the trust of the people, because if Party A, despite having the majority, has connections to unsavory groups, that's a problem. Besides, the party in question has to have a man with a great amount of political talent to avoid micromanaging by the reigning monarch.

edited 2nd Jun '15 6:48:54 AM by HallowHawk

If the monarch can singlehandedly override the popular vote, then I'd say it still counts as absolute. Some absolute monarchies have a legislature that is appointed by the monarch, such as the Legislative Council of Brunei. Qatar's constitution provides that 30 of the 45 members of the Advisory Council be popularly elected, but the elections have been indefinitely postponed.

So you could have a Parliament that is elected, or a combination of elected and appointed by the Monarch, with the Monarch having the final say in everything anyway. In that sense, the Parliament would exist mainly to talk about things, not necessarily make laws. Which is the root of the word Parliament, "parler" meaning "to speak".

It might not be "absolute" (which implies he's entirely above the law), but it's definitely authoritarian. And there are many examples of such systems, both historically and around the world today; Germany pre-WWI leaned somewhat in that direction, while the Czar pre-Revolution is a stronger example.

(Basically: if the Duma voted one way and the Czar wanted to do something else, the Duma lost.)

But what about if the parliament is only given as much power as the monarch out of competence, and that if they mess it up, bad things happen to the parliament.

But who watch the monarchy? Who watch the watchman?

Constitutional democracy could work best because there is check and balance of power, and it is written as a rule. Lawmaker dictates laws but theoritically can't push any laws that working government and justice authorithy didn't like. Working government must follow laws dictated, under justice of aythority watchful eyes. And justice authorithy can only work with the laws provided by lawmaker, and if they slip up, lawmaker can give the laws that dicates they should fix that mess.

It's not perfect, but it's a start.

Define "competence".

Because if you let the monarch define the term, you get the excuse used by a lot of dictators and absolutists: "they're obviously incompetent hence I'm dissolving them and taking over so we'll have someone who knows what they're doing". This is a sure recipe for a powerless rubber-stamp parliament.

Have you never heard of "checks and balances"? As RBomber pointed out, what you're suggesting contravenes the basic maxim that ambition should be made to counteract ambition, and that power should not be concentrated beyond what is absolutely necessary.

edited 3rd Jun '15 1:37:22 PM by SabresEdge

That's pretty much the defining characteristic of an absolute monarchy. The monarch's power is, at least in theory, absolute, supreme, and unchecked.

There are of course practical limitations on an absolute monarch's power. A King can't make the impossible possible, after all. Also a wise ruler would always take into account the good of his people so that he doesn't cause them to revolt. And of course even an absolute ruler can't be in all places at all times and has to rely on subordinates to relay information and orders back and forth.

That's exactly what I was going to say, though to clarify that as a reply to , I meant "competence" in that, the PM can have as much power as the monarch, which in tropespeak, is Dragon-in-Chief / Hypercompetent Sidekick. Also, I was referring to European monarchs as an example, since they're not as powerful as they used to be pre-19th Century.

edited 3rd Jun '15 2:08:44 PM by HallowHawk

The Sultan of Brunei, a modern absolute monarch, is also his own Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Treasury Minister.

Throughout most of history, most monarchs have had at least one person who was his right hand, most trusted advisor, Evil Chancellor, etc. Back in the day when many kings were more soldier than politician, they'd need somebody who could actually see about the day to day business of government, while the King enjoyed being King.

I was thinking Wilhelmine Germany myself.

Yes, the Reichstag did have real power, and a wise king would not interfere too high-handedly, but in the end, if push came to shove, the Kaiser's word prevailed. Even all the political and popular power of Otto von Bismarck couldn't prevent him from being ignominiously dismissed by Wilhelm II.

Make no mistake, just because a country has a legislature doesn't mean it's democratic. If the legislature could be easily overruled, bypassed, harassed, interfered with, or ignored by the executive, it's not a democracy. At best it's an authoritarian state whose ruler is going more velvet-glove than iron-fist. That can easily change if the ruler changes.

I'm reminded of one of Cersei's lines from Game Of Thrones where she says, "Power lies were people believe it lies". After all, if enough people close to the seat of power lose faith and start ignoring the ruler, then it's no longer a monarchy, but more of an oligarchy.

There's some discussion that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were like that. Both Der Fuhrer and the Emperor held theoretical absolute power. The Fuhrer wasn't that interested in day to day governing other than with the war, so most of his cronies just did what they could get away with justifying. While the Emperor of Japan was probably sidelined by the militarist faction in the government. In both cases, the top dogs did what they did in the name of their leader, but the leader either didn't care much or was effectively powerless.

A good movie about the power structure around Emperor Hirohito is Emperor, which focuses on the investigation as to whether he should be charged with war crimes. It's not a documentary, so I don't know how accurate it is, but it's still a good story.

edited 3rd Jun '15 7:06:18 PM by Lawyerdude