The advantages British constitutional monarchy

The constitutional monarchy puts Britain’s kings and queens in a strange position – they seem to have lots of influence, and they certainly have a lot of privileges, but they don’t have very much real power. To the citizens of many of the world’s republics, where you can vote for the head of state you want and kick them out if they don’t do their job properly, the British system seems archaic and unfair.
So what’s so special about the constitutional monarchy? It does have a few advantages:

• Continuity: Elected governments come and go, but the king or queen remains. This continuity makes for a more stable regime.
  
• Political neutrality: There are benefits from keeping the head of state out of party politics – the crown is above the temporary squabbles of the political parties.
• Experience: A monarch who’s reigned for more than a few years can have a valuable perspective and deeper knowledge of affairs than a politician who’s only been in power for months.
  
• Overview: Both the continuity of the monarchy, and its involvement in the world outside Britain, gives it a valuable overview that is often lacking with other kinds of government.

Of course, there are drawbacks, too. Any monarchy relies on the accidents of birth, and while some kings and queens have excelled at their role, just as many would never have made it in a democratic system. And there’s the ultimate drawback – however good or bad a hereditary ruler, you’re stuck with him. Other than a revolution, you have no way of deposing a hereditary monarch.

The power: Ruler and Prime Minister

One of the monarch’s jobs is to appoint the Prime Minister. In practice, of course, the senior member of the government has to work with Parliament, and so the Prime Minister is the leader of the party that holds the majority in Parliament. The real power is with Parliament. The monarch and Prime Minister meet once a week (or speak on the telephone, if they’re not within easy travelling distance of one another). During these meetings, as in other dealings with Parliament, the sovereign’s duty is to ‘encourage or warn’, but, ultimately, to respect the advice of the minister of the day.
The current queen, Elizabeth II, has reigned during the governments of ten Prime Ministers. The discussions she’s had with these varied political figures (seven Conservative and three Labour leaders), together with her wide experience of talking to political leaders around the world, makes her one of the best-informed people in the country. Prime Ministers value her opinions, which are given in the strictest confidence.

The monarch in british Parliament

In Britain, new laws are made by the monarch in Parliament – in other words, by the three-headed creature made up of the two houses of Parliament – the House of Commons and House of Lords – plus the sovereign. The most powerful of these three parts is the House of Commons, the elected chamber of Parliament where new laws are made and debated. The House of Lords revises and debates the new laws. The monarch merely approves new laws on the advice of his or her ministers, who themselves are members of the House of Commons or Lords.
Because the ministers come up with the new laws in the first place, and these laws are passed by a majority in Parliament, it stands to reason that the ministers advise the monarch to give her assent to them. And the sovereign hasn’t refused his or her assent for more than 200 years. It sounds as if the king or queen’s role is purely formal.
So is the monarch just a rubber stamp? Well, not quite. The British king or queen still has the right to advise the ministers. Monarch and ministers meet regularly, and the sovereign may encourage or warn them about any new law they’re thinking of passing. Generations of Prime Ministers have said how helpful it is to get the advice of monarchs, who after all are often people who have been around far longer than they have. The Prime Minister and ruler meet regularly, and even if the ruler doesn’t have any tangible power, he or she has a lot of influence.
The monarch also has two formal roles in relation to Parliament. These roles are more symbolic, but they show that the ruler is still very much at the forefront of government. These roles relate to the opening and closing of Parliament:
_ The monarch opens each session of Parliament personally, and a key part of the opening ceremony is the Queen’s or King’s Speech, which outlines the programme of new laws to be debated during the coming session. Of course, the queen doesn’t write this speech herself. It’s put together by her ministers. But this ceremony still shows that the queen is at the heart of government.
_ When the time comes for Parliament to be closed – when an election is due – the Prime Minister travels to Buckingham Palace and asks the monarch for permission to close Parliament. Again, the sovereign is at the heart of things, even if his or her role is ceremonial. One thing a reigning British monarch never does is cast a vote in an election. In theory, nothing stops the king or queen from voting. But in practice, casting a vote would be unconstitutional, because the sovereign is outside politics and able to function whatever the political colour of the government. The same goes for the heir to the throne, who will one day have to play the same politically neutral role. Other members of the royal family, such as the Duke of Edinburgh, are theoretically able to vote, but they don’t. For them to put their weight behind a political party would compromise the neutrality of the monarch. And as far as the monarchy is concerned, whatever the personal political views of the members of the royal family, neutrality is all.

So where’s the constitution in British monarchy?

One of the oddest things about Britain’s constitutional monarchy is that, unlike the United States, Britain has no one written document that forms the constitution. The British constitution consists of a set of rules, some unwritten, some written down in laws passed in Parliament, and some forming documents such as the Magna Carta. These rules have been established over a long period of time. The constitutional monarchy has evolved since 1689, the year after William III and Queen Mary came to the throne as joint monarchs.
The Bill of Rights of 1689 started the ball rolling. It set down some key principles to protect the rights of Parliament and limit the power of the ruler, including:

• The law should be free from royal interference.
• People can petition the ruler.
• The ruler can’t levy taxes by royal prerogative alone.
• Elections of Members of Parliament should take place without royal interference.

In addition, many more rules have developed that limit the power of the monarch. For example, the monarch:

• Can’t make or pass legislation.
• Must always be neutral politically.
• Doesn’t vote in elections.
• In matters of government, always acts on the advice of his or her ministers and may not enter the House of Commons.

Understanding a Constitutional Monarchy

People often think of kings and queens behaving like dictators. It seems that monarchs aren’t accountable to anyone for their power; you can’t vote them out of office if you don’t like them, and they can do virtually anything they like in their kingdom. They’re rich, powerful, and privileged, and their subjects have to obey them, no matter what.
The monarchy in Britain used to be like that description. It was an executive monarchy in which rulers made laws. Some kings claimed that they ruled by divine right – in other words, they were God’s representatives, and what they said went.
These days, the British monarchy’s not like that. It’s what is called a constitutional monarchy, where the king or queen governs according to a constitution or set of rules. In Britain, these rules make it very clear exactly how much power the monarch has and how he or she can act in virtually any situation.