What Are the Checks & Balances in a Monarchy?
- In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen has total power. There are no significant checks and balances. The monarch may have advisers, but these advisers have no real power. Their only role is to offer the king or queen advice and, depending on the disposition of the monarch, they may only tell them what they want to hear. In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church had some power, and the monarch might give in to the wishes of the Church. However, the Church was also not an elected or accountable body, and its power only went so far. When Henry the VIII of England, for example, had a serious disagreement with the Church over divorce, the King started the Church of England, made himself the head of the new church and banned the Catholic Church from England.
- In 1066, the first Parliament of England was formed, though it had very little power. After the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, some power was exercised by Parliament, such as limiting the powers of the King to levy taxes. It was not until the enlightenment that parliaments began to gain real power. Enlightenment philosophers such as Charles Louis Montesquieu of France and John Locke of England began espousing the separation of powers and checks and balances. The philosophies themselves helped introduce the concepts into government. Revolutions though in the United States, France and other locations helped convince monarchs that it was necessary to limit their own power.
- Modern monarchies in the West are primarily ceremonial. England, for example, has an upper and lower house of parliament and a court system and has a system of checks and balances similar to the United States. The crown is still the official head of state and still has the power of veto, but that power is rarely, if ever, used. In some other nations, such as Japan, the monarchy, which dates back to the 6th century B.C., is purely ceremonial and has no more real function in government at all.
- There are still a handful of remaining ruling monarchies. In most of these, there is some form of parliament and court system. However, the ruling monarch still holds a vast amount of power, and checks and balances are limited. The countries that still have ruling monarchies are Bahrain, Brunel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and the United Arab Emirates.
