Are Constitutional Monarchies More Stable?

[SLD]

•  List of monarchies
•  List of current monarchies
•  List of current monarchs of sovereign states
•  Abolition of monarchy
•  Lists of monarchs who lost their thrones
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones before the 13th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 13th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 14th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 15th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 16th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 17th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 18th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 19th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 20th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 21st century
•  List of monarchs who abdicated though some were forced to do so.

Monarchies as inherently stable? Doubtful at best, given the long history of monarchs ending up deposed.

•  List of coups and coup attempts
•  List of coups and coup attempts since 2010
•  List of coups and coup attempts by country

Including oodles of them directed against various monarchs.

No. Not all monarchies. Constitutional ones like Great Britain now and the Netherlands and Denmark. Where the monarch’s power is significantly diminished. Absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia are no different than other autocracies. They are repressive and have to be to maintain the status quo. But they are fundamentally unstable and likely to collapse violently eventually.

Indeed the French Revolution was only the last of many revolts French monarchs dealt with. There was the Frond which impacted Louis XIV, there were bread riots in the early 1770’s. And many other problems throughout their long reign. Same with the Tsars. Same with English kings in medieval times.

But that’s not what I meant. King Charles’ power consists in acting as an important rallying symbol of the nation, not in any governmental role. Does this symbol help glue the nation together and bind the people so that in the end they are working together? They transcend partisan politics that can tear pure republics apart. At least that’s the theory I’ve heard. Obviously debatable.

 

[Tigers!]

•  List of monarchies
•  List of current monarchies
•  List of current monarchs of sovereign states
•  Abolition of monarchy
•  Lists of monarchs who lost their thrones
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones before the 13th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 13th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 14th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 15th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 16th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 17th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 18th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 19th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 20th century
  •  List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 21st century
•  List of monarchs who abdicated though some were forced to do so.

Monarchies as inherently stable? Doubtful at best, given the long history of monarchs ending up deposed.

•  List of coups and coup attempts
•  List of coups and coup attempts since 2010
•  List of coups and coup attempts by country

Including oodles of them directed against various monarchs.

The coups against republics would be a rather long list too.

 

[Bomb#20]

Indeed the French Revolution was only the last of many revolts French monarchs dealt with.

You missed a couple.

July Revolution - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

French Revolution of 1848 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[lpetrich]

(coups and coup attempts)
Including oodles of them directed against various monarchs.

No. Not all monarchies. Constitutional ones like Great Britain now and the Netherlands and Denmark. Where the monarch’s power is significantly diminished.

True, but those monarchies are not much of a monarchy these days.

Absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia are no different than other autocracies. They are repressive and have to be to maintain the status quo. But they are fundamentally unstable and likely to collapse violently eventually.

 

[bilby]

(coups and coup attempts)
Including oodles of them directed against various monarchs.

No. Not all monarchies. Constitutional ones like Great Britain now and the Netherlands and Denmark. Where the monarch’s power is significantly diminished.

True, but those monarchies are not much of a monarchy these days.

Absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia are no different than other autocracies. They are repressive and have to be to maintain the status quo. But they are fundamentally unstable and likely to collapse violently eventually.

I am not sure that absolute monarchy (or any other form of autocracy) is fundamentally unstable; Such regimes are unstable if they have a significant non-elite pool of educated subjects, but where they have had an agrarian economy with a very small educated class, and/or where the educated class is a separate elite (such as a religious class), they can easily last for a very long time indeed. The medieval period in Europe had a lot of very stable autocratic monarchies. What little "instability" there was tended to manifest as difficulty in avoiding invasion by neighbouring autocratic monarchies.

 

[Hermit]

Indeed the French Revolution was only the last of many revolts French monarchs dealt with.

You missed a couple.

July Revolution - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

French Revolution of 1848 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Contemporary France is actually also known as the Fifth Republic.

The first one ended when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself as Emperor in 1804. This was followed by the first Bourbon restoration in 1814 with the crowning of Louis XVIII, the return of Napoleon, then a second restoration, which survived - at least as a monarchy - the 1830 revolution by becoming the Orleans monarchy until it was replaced by the Second Republic during the 1848 revolution. It was unpopular and did not last long. Its President, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, staged a coup d'état in 1851 and proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III. The Franco-Prussian (Franco-North German Confederation, to be pedantic) war put an end to his reign in 1870, leading to the Third Republic. Hitler nixed it in 1940 by installing the Vichy puppet government in the south of France and ruling the rest directly. The fourth Republic lasted from 1946 to 1958, but was so unstable (21 governments in its 12 years) that it was decided (by referendum) to adopt a new constitution, and with it the Fifth Republic.