Characteristics of the Monarchy

The monarchy is the form of government where the government is exercised by a single person who is the monarch, it is for life, that is, the monarch governs for life until his death, abdication or in the case of his overthrow and is generally hereditary although there is also the case of being elective.

The state that is governed by a monarch can be designated as a monarchy or as a kingdom, empire or principality, depending on the title possessed by the monarch, which may well be that of king, emperor, kaiser, Khan, Tsar, Prince, or with local terms that depend on the place and of the time, as in the cases of tlatoanis and pharaohs in Egypt and ancient Mexico respectively and in the same way in other places. Monarchies are also independent or semi-independent principalities, which are governed by a family or princely house, as is the case of some medieval and current principalities such as Andorra, Monaco, or Liechtenstein.

The monarchy is one of the oldest systems of governments that exist, formerly it was believed that the rulers descended directly from the gods and they had divine right to rule their subjects, in some places such as Egypt, monarchs were held as gods, and so in some others cultures.

Characteristics of monarchies:

Origins.- The monarchy may have had its origins in the first human societies from the government exercised by a wise, strong and capable individual (a warrior or hunter, or priest or shaman), who has possessed exceptional gifts that the community believed would be passed on to his descendants, and henceforth his descendants would be preferred to rule, preferably some other individual, believing that they would possess the gifts that his ancestor. And perhaps since the priests were some of the first rulers and it was believed that they were appointed by the deities (or also descendants deities), the power they possessed was greatly strengthened when it was understood that they ruled in the name of the gods, they being their representatives or that they themselves were children of the gods, being the origin of the belief that kings and rulers exercised government by divine right.

The government rests with one person or a small group. In most of the monarchies that have existed throughout history, the government is exercised by a single individual who holds most powers, (military, political, religious, economic, etc.), although it delegates some powers to ministers and officials, who respond directly or indirectly to him on matters concerning the functions that the king has given them. designated. An example could be the monarchies of ancient Egypt, where the king who was called "nesu" (pharaoh for the Greeks), delegated various functions to ministers and other officials who had to answer accounts and explanations about the government of what had been previously designated by the King.

Hereditary.- They are generally hereditary, that is, the government is inherited from parents to children or to the closest relatives of the monarch who dies or abdicates. Being hereditary, dynasties are created, which keep the real power in the hands of the same family, on a large number of occasions marrying between relatives to keep power concentrated. As they are hereditary, the common thing is that the government passes to the eldest son of the monarch (or in his case to the eldest daughter), following in the line of succession the other sons of the monarch. There may also be prior designations by the monarch, referring to who will be the heir among the relatives of the monarch, which generally falls on the eldest son or eldest daughter, said prior designation is made to avoid possible quarrels over the power.

It is for life.The monarchy is for life, that is, the government is exercised until the death of the king or until the ruler declines power in favor of another person through abdication of the ruler in favor of someone, (a previously designated heir or a relative who is in the line of succession immediately to the monarch who abdicates the throne).

Regency.- The regency is the government exercised by a person authorized in the monarchy, to perform the functions of the monarch when he is unable to govern, whether due to the absence of the monarch, physical or mental incapacity that prevents him from ruling by himself, or by the minority of the monarch. It can be exercised by a family member, minister or person previously designated for it and ceases to exercise the power of regent when the monarch reaches the age of majority, returns from his absence, or obtains or regains the physical or mental capacity to exercise the government by himself, as well as when the monarch is replaced by death before having obtained the majority of age or before having returned from his absence, also ceases to exercise the regency when the monarch is replaced by another person through the consensus of ministers and nobles or by means of the force.

Types of monarchies:

Theocratics.- It is perhaps the oldest, it is based on the supposed divine right that the rulers have, either by the supposed descent of the kings with respect to the gods, (mainly in antiquity), or by the grace of God, already in times closer.

It is based on the precepts of a certain religion, the policies of the government are identical to the precepts of religion, or are influenced by the precepts taught by a certain religion dominant. The ruler claims to exercise the government in the name of the god, gods or a superior force (usually supernatural), the rulers (kings, princes, etc.,), are influenced in their way of governing by the priests or religious belonging to the religion that dominates in the region they govern or to the religion to which the ruler.

Parliamentarians.- In parliamentary monarchies the king is head of state but does not govern, that is, he does not have executive functions and his power is rather symbolic, and the government rests with both the parliament and the ministers that it proposes (the parliament) and who are ratified by the monarch. In parliamentary monarchies, the parliament is the one who regulates the functioning of the state, appoints or proposes officials, and regulates and limits the functions of the king, leaving him as It was said before, as a symbolic power having limited powers, however the person of the king and what they symbolize is highly respected as a symbol of the state or a symbol of national unity.

Constitutional.- They are those where the monarchy is subject to the constitution or accepts a constitution on which they base their powers and also limits them, the monarch holds the head of state having a symbolic power, real power falling to officials such as ministers and one or two chambers, the monarchical power acts as a mediator in political conflicts between factions within the cameras. The king is sovereign although he can also share sovereignty with the people.

Absolute.- Absolute monarchies are those in which the ruler (prince, king or emperor) is sovereign and exercises power in a unipersonal manner, having the power absolute, monopolizing spheres such as justice, the economy, political power, military, etc., and in many cases it has power over the life and freedom of its vassals. The latter was more evident in monarchies of antiquity.

The absolute monarchy is the one that has predominated in most of the history of humanity, both in Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as in pre-Columbian America, although there were exceptions such as in some monarchies where if there were powers that served as a counterweight, either through a dinner or as in the case of Sparta, where there were 2 kings who shared the power.

Commonly reference is made to absolute monarchies in relation to the European absolutist regimes that emerged between the 16th and 18th centuries, with characters such as Carlos V, Peter the great of Russia, Ferdinand VII, Catherine of Russia, but the one who best symbolizes this type of absolutist government is Louis XIV of France with his famous phrase “The state I am Me".

Electives.- While it is true that most monarchies throughout history have been hereditary, there have been elective monarchies, as were several cases in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in some Germanic peoples, where the king was chosen by acclamation or consensus and was not hereditary or at least initially.