MONARCHY (Fr. monarchie, from Lat. monarchic, from Greek povapxia, rule of one, sole power). In the course of history, the word monarchy has been subjected to so many interpretations and has been applied to so many different kinds of governments that an exact definition or a classification of its main divi sions is difficult. Strictly speaking, the word means undivided sovereignty or rule of a single person, and hence it has been used to describe states in which the sovereign or supreme au thority is vested in a single individual, the monarch, who in his own right is the permanent head of the state. The king or chief magis trate of a state may properly be termed a mon arch only when he possesses the entire ruling power, but • the term monarchy has outlived this original meaning and in popular language is used somewhat loosely to designate that form of government in which the chief authority is exercised by a hereditary sovereign as distin guished from republics with elected presidents, or for the "monarchial principle° as opposed to the republican. Still more loosely the term is used to designate any government in which the political head is called king or prince, regard less of the authority he may exercise or the manner in which political power is distributed. The changes in the power exercised by the monarchs of Europe have necessitated the in vention of new terms for general use in de scribing the various forms of government, but these terms in themselves are a contradiction of the true meaning of monarchy. We now have "limited" or "constitutional monarchy" as op posed to "absolute° or "autocratic monarchy," and a distinction is also made between "heredi tary" and "elective monarchy," though the dial tinction is unimportant since these terms do not indicate the nature of the government.
As stated above, the absolute monarchy is the only real monarchy in it is strictest interpre tation of the word, since t s the only govern ment in which the ruler is absolutely supreme, (See ABSOLUTIS ) . A mixed or limited mop archy is one in which the ruler, though still possessing the status and dignity of royalty, shares the supreme governmental powers either with a body of nobles, or with a popular repre sentative body, or with both. A constitutional monarchy is one in which the power of the ruler is restrained by a constitution. Woolsey
says: "Mixed monarchies are something more than limited ones. There may be a limited monarchy where king and people, the former restricted by a constitution, the latter organized and invested with certain means of preventing illegal government, are the only forces. This may be called mixed, perhaps, yet the term rather inclines to embrace only such states as have three or more political powers, as king, nobles and people, united in the, government, or the same powers with the clergy, as in many mediaeval states. Thus all mixture contains limitations but all limited governments are not mixed." There are now no constitutional or limited monarchies wherein the sovereign pos sesses power to legislate by decree and in such a monarchy the democratic element is the only authority directly exercising any great degree of actual power. Monarchies are usually hereditary though they sometimes have been elective, but in the latter case they have gener ally been attended with disastrous feuds, and great confusion in the elections, as in Poland. Of the elective monarchies the most conspicu ous were the papal states, the Pope being elected by the cardinals; but the states of the Netherlands were termed republics even though in some of them the office of stadtholder was hereditary. In Europe all monarchies were originally elective, within certain limits; and subsequent to the introduction of Christianity kinship with the reigning family did not count so much as the essential ,condition of the as sumption of sovereign power as the "sacring° by the divine authority of the Church. Consti tutional monarchs in their origin may be elec tive or they may combine both systems, as when one family is disinherited and the supreme power under certain conditions declared hered in another. The purely hereditary prin ciple is of comparatively late origin, the out come of obvious convenience which became a religious or quasi-religious dogma. The abso lute monarchies of the present day are Abys sinia, Afghanistan and Siam; and the limited monarchies are Belgium, Great Britain, Den mark, Greece, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Persia, Rumania, Serbia, Spain and Sweden.