- Federal monarchy
A federal monarchy is a federation of states with a single monarch as over-all head of the federation, but retaining different monarchs, or a non-monarchical system of government, in the various states joined to the federation.
As a term in political science
The term was introduced into English political and historical discourse by
Edward Augustus Freeman , in his "History of Federal Government" (1863). Freeman himself thought a federal monarchy only possible in the abstract. [E.A. Freeman, "History of Federal Government", pp. 96-100. Available on [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9FYMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA98&dq=%22federal+Monarchy%22#PPA100,M1 google books] .]Federal monarchies
Historically
Historically the most important example of a federal monarchy is the
German Empire of 1871-1919. The head of state of the federation was a monarch, the emperor, who was also head of state of some constituent parts to the federation as king of Prussia, while other constituent kingdoms, such as theKingdom of Bavaria or theKingdom of Saxony , retained their own monarchs and armies. Some of the constituent states federated to the empire, namely Bremen,Hamburg and Lübeck, were non-monarchical city-states.The concept played a role in political debates in Italy and Austria-Hungary in the nineteenth century and in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the twentieth, without ever being put into effect in any of these cases. [ ]Currently
In recent years the
Kingdom of Belgium , theKingdom of Spain , andCanada have been referred to as federal monarchies, although none are officially styled as such. [Ronald L. Watts, "Comparing Federal Systems". McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003. ISBN 0889118353]Currently the term can be applied in the fullest sense to
Malaysia [ [http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/constitutional_law/is_malaysia_an_islamic_state_.html?date=2007-12-01 Tommy Thomas, "Is Malaysia an Islamic State?" 2005.] ] and theUnited Arab Emirates , in both of which the head of state of the federation is selected from among the heads (sultans or emirs respectively) who rule the constituent states of the federation.References
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