Federal monarchy

Not to be confused withFederated monarchy.

Afederal monarchy,in the strict sense, is afederationofstateswith a single monarch as overall head of the federation, but retainingdifferent monarchs,or having 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 byEdward Augustus Freeman,in hisHistory of Federal Government(1863). Freeman himself thought a federal monarchy only possible in the abstract.

Federal monarchies

Historically

Historically, the most prominent example of a federal monarchy in theWestern worldwas theGerman Empire(1871–1918) and, to a lesser extent, its predecessors (North German ConfederationandGerman Confederation). The head of state of the federation was a monarch, theGerman Emperor,who was also head of state of the largest constituent part to the federation asKing of Prussia;other constituent monarchies, such as the kingdoms ofBavaria,SaxonyandWürttembergand various grand duchies, duchies and principalities, retained their own monarchs and armies. Besides the 23 monarchies (22 constituent monarchies and the German emperor) there were also three republicancity-states–Bremen,HamburgandLübeck– andAlsace-Lorraine,a semi-autonomous republic since 1912.

In the Eastern Hemisphere, an example is the system of government inIndiain the 3rd century BCEMaurya Empire,where regional rulers appointed by the emperor headed the regional administration that governed the distant regions of the empire. It was revived in 16th century under the rule ofMughalEmperorAkbar,in which thesubahs(other thanDelhi) were controlled bysubahdarsappointed by the emperor and the regional kings. The emperor himself supervised the regional rulers and thus personally looked after the welfare of his people.TheSikh EmpireofPunjabwas also a federal monarchy in whichmisldarsandrajascontrolled their respective misls and kingdoms under theMaharajaof Punjab.

The concept played a role in political debates inItalyandAustria-Hungaryin the nineteenth century and inYugoslaviain the twentieth century, but it was not put into effect in any of the cases. For example, modern Italy had not unified untilRisorgimentoof the late 19th century, with the several smaller kingdoms, duchies, republics, etc., each headed by a different dynasty or ruling class, being disestablished in favor of a unitary monarchy under the house of Savoy.

Currently

Currently, the term can be applied in the fullest sense to theUnited Arab EmiratesandMalaysia.In both, the head of state of the entire federation is selected from among the heads of states (Emir,SultanorRaja,respectively) who rule theconstituent statesof the federation.

While not officially declared as such,Spainhas been referred to as a federal monarchy, due to having manyautonomous communitieshelmed by presidents who all answer to theSpanish crown.Officially, Spain is a unitary state displaying a high degree ofdevolution.

SeveralCommunities, regions and language areasconstitute theKingdom of Belgium,a federal state with a constitutional monarchy.

List of federal monarchies

There are currently only two countries which qualify as federal monarchies in the sense of this article, where the sovereign of the nation is different from the sovereign of the constituent states.

Federation	Subdivisions	Number of subdivisions	Monarch	Head of government
Malaysia	States of Malaysia	13 states and 3 federal territories	Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor	Anwar Ibrahim
United Arab Emirates	Emirates of the United Arab Emirates	7 emirates	Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

See also

• Form of government
• List of monarchies
• Federal republic