مجلة المقال
Volume 2, Numéro 3, Pages 19-50
2016-06-06

The Debate On The British Monarchy In Today’s Modern Democratic Britain

Authors : Djihed Messikh .

Abstract

The British Monarchy is the eldest institution in Britain. This institution witnessed many historical developments including civil wars, World Wars, fall of the British Empire, rise of democracy, decolonization, economic crises, but still it exists today even though not as strong as it was. This institution had been at once very powerful with its kings strongly believing in the Divine Right of kings. Gradually, it was stripped of most of its powers as people no longer believed in the sacrosanctity of their kings. Indeed, people started to rebel against their kings and call for limiting their absolute powers to safeguard their own rights and liberties. Such rebellions marked the end of Absolute Monarchy and gave the birth of Constitutional British Monarchy with only symbolic roles to play which do not justify its existence, leading many to call for its abolition. It is really surprising that the British Monarchy still exists now in the 21st century, but before rushing into calling for its abolition, one must think deeply and rise questions like: What is the rationality of keeping this institution with its apparent symbolic roles in politics, the arena in which everything is carefully accounted for? In this humble work, we try to find possible “hidden roles” played by the British Monarch that are so important that they make the possibility of abolishing it out of consideration.

Keywords

The Debate -the British Monarchy -Modern Democratic Britain