Monarchy–Global. Monarchical Self-Assertion in a Republican World *

Abstract

Monarchy – Global. Monarchical Self-Assertion in a Republican World

In 1793, the French republic saw the guillotining of two royal heads. In 1934, Winston Churchill spoke of the «holocaust of crowns» within his lifetime. Today, the British Queen presides over the Commonwealth, which comprises mostly republics. At the same time, there have been calls a return of the kings to republics with respect to Africa. How is this astonishing self-assertion of the institutional monarchy to be explained, and why has the antagonism between the monarchy and the republic disappeared? This will be discussed in a paper through a global perspective. Churchill was convinced: «No institution pays such dividends as the monarchy. » What dividends were earned, and for whom? What has the global presence of European states meant for the institution of the monarchy in Europe, in imperial spaces, and in decolonisation? In order to be able to analyse this issue, our study questions the legitimacy which had been both accorded to and claimed by the institution monarchy. Does monarchical legitimacy differ in Europe, Asia and Africa? Why did monarchies survived while other states and empires were created and then destroyed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? The study places three areas in the center of our consideration: the role of the monarchy as the emotional center of the nation and the empire; monarchy as a polycentric rule; and lastly, monarchy as the institutionalisation of permanence in change. Finally, the study will discuss how a comparative assessment and review of the performances by the monarchy and the republic might look.