Elective monarchy

The elective monarchy is a form of government in which the monarch is elected by vote through some mechanism of a variable nature. Unlike democracy, voters and candidates belong to some restricted body, due to the position held, belonging to an estate (birth), or some type of personal or social condition. Currently Samoa, the Sovereign Order of Malta, Vatican City, the United Arab Emirates, Cambodia and Malaysia are the only reigning elective monarchies in force.

Historical

Ancient Greece

Throughout history certain peoples have chosen this as a form of government as a modification between monarchy, republic and despotism.

Ancient Rome

The Roman monarchy was in principle elective. Beginning with the fifth king, the election of the last was always made among members of the same family, although not by direct descent from the first-born male, which is what is usually understood as hereditary monarchy.

Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire was an elective monarchy, being unique on the American continent. This shared several characteristics with the Greek polis, such as the fact that the people virtually elected the emperor; despite the enormous distance and historical periods that divided them. The election was divided into 3 stages: the first was when the macehuales (peasants), merchants and artisans of a calpulli (neighborhood of Tenochtitlan) elected their representative; In the second stage, the representatives of each calpulli met in the Great Council, where the 4 Great Lords were chosen; In the third and final stage, the Great Lords discussed for quite some time who should be elected Great Tlatoani (similar to the Conclave), depending on -mainly- his military achievements and knowledge of him. In the end, the Great Tlatoani was considered a deity.

Costa Rica

The mánkeme or chief of the Kingdom of Nicoya, which in turn had several vassal chiefdoms, was elected by the monéxico, a type of tribal parliament or council of elders formed by the huehues or sheds.

Spain

The Visigoth monarchy, which followed an identical trajectory, did not have the opportunity to establish the principle of hereditary monarchy, and in the first centuries of the Reconquista, the Christian kingdoms that were created in the northern mountains of the Iberian Peninsula were building their own institutions, some closer to the feudal ones that were developing in France, while the kingdom of Asturias built over time a supposed Visigothic legitimacy. The first kings of Asturias were elective, but by the beginning of the 11th century the institution had become established as hereditary: it was even possible to divide and distribute kingdoms as inheritance among the children of Sancho III the Elder, who had unified almost all the territories. peninsular Christians (the adaptation or not of the fact to traditional Navarrese law is questioned by historians, but it actually occurred in practice). Later, even female succession was possible (the Salic law was not applied) or regency by minority.

Haiti

The First Empire of Haiti (1804-1806) was elective, or at least its constitution (1805) provided for the succession of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Emperor Jacques I), unique and ephemeral emperor, would be elective, although the emperor had the power to designate a candidate for succession.

Hungary

The concept of elective monarchy existed in the subconscious of the Hungarian nation since ancient times, brought from Asia along with their other semi-nomadic customs. The monarchs were elected by their nobles in a ceremony where they were raised on a shield recognizing their superiority. However, during the Middle Ages the true legal and traditional basis that defined the election and coronation of the king was consanguineous inheritance, transmitted from father to son, uncle to nephew, brother to brother, always preponderating the eldest. After the death of King Louis I of Hungary in 1382, who according to his will succeeded him was his daughter Mary I of Hungary, who had been taken as wife by Sigismund of Luxembourg. Finally, after the death of the queen, Sigismund was definitively accepted as Hungarian king, but under certain conditions and elected by the nobility in the name of the Holy Hungarian Crown. Later, in the middle of the XV century, in 1458, once again faced with the vacant throne, the Hungarian nobility chose King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, son of the deceased regent and most important military commander of the kingdom. Matthias's uncle, Miguel Szilágyi, with enormous armies and large properties, forced the Hungarian nobility to choose his young nephew, thus becoming the first Hungarian king who came from the high nobility and not from a Royal House, addressing him as "Matías, the king who was never a prince."

Poland

In Poland, after the death of the last Piast in 1370, although the title was inherited to his nephew King Louis I of Hungary, the son of his sister Isabel Łokietek, the Polish nobility decided that his rights would be recognized but only because the Polish kings were initially chosen by a council. Gradually the situation evolved and this privilege was guaranteed to all members of the szlachta (Polish nobility). During the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation (1569-1795) the kings were elected by mass meetings of nobles in a field in Wola, near Warsaw. Since every son of a Polish nobleman (not just the eldest) is a nobleman, it was estimated that up to 500,000 noblemen could theoretically participate personally in the elections, which became the largest electoral body in Europe at the time.. During the time of the election, the function of the king was exercised by an interrex (usually embodied by the primate of Poland). This procedure was called wolna elekcja (free choice).

Frankish Kingdoms and Holy Roman Empire

The Merovingian monarchy was the one that most effectively completed the process, although the discussion of its right could be effectively undertaken by Charles Martel, a high dignitary of the court who ruled in practice and who maintained, with the support of the Pope, his better right to the throne through legitimacy of exercise, proven in the defense of the Frankish kingdom with its triumph against the Muslims in the battle of Poitiers. The Carolingians managed to establish a dynasty in the IX century, but the Holy Empire remained an elective institution, in which they succeeded each other. various dynasties throughout the Middle Ages and the Modern Age (Othonids, Hohenstaufen, Habsburg), without ruling out the emergence of an external candidate (Alfonso choice). In France, the Capetians managed to maintain uninterrupted male succession until the crisis caused by the Hundred Years' War, at a time when pretenders to the crown did not invoke a better right due to charisma or personal gifts, but rather a better dynastic right.

Germanic Kingdoms

The Germanic peoples at the time of invading the Roman Empire (III century to the 5th century) had an equivalent institution to the temporary elective monarchy for times of war, elected by the assembly of warriors. Over time the institution became a monarchy for life. It continued to be elective, although the essence of the election was distorted by the practice of association to the throne. This consisted of the king associating a person - normally, but not necessarily the eldest son - with the reign in his later years, in a similar way to what the Roman emperors had done. Even to guarantee the election of the desired candidate, he convened the assembly while he was still alive - by then not composed of all free men, but only of the most important potentates, equated to the Roman nobilitas (nobility) of the Under the Empire, with which the most important German families had already merged through marriage. The transition to a hereditary monarchy was thus made insensitively. The next thing was the application to the monarchical succession of the laws or traditions of the Germanic tribes in matters of inheritance, especially those of the Salian Franks, which came to be called Salic law (which prevented women from inheriting). Such a thing did not make sense originally, when it was necessary to choose between outstanding warriors for their proven value in combat.

Tibet

The monarch of Tibet between 1391 and 1951, the Dalai Lama, is considered the incarnation of the Boddhisatva Avalokitesvara, therefore his selection occurs when senior hierarchs of the Gelug School, the largest of the Tibetan Buddhist schools, designate a infant as the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama after the death of the previous one. This was a system of theocratic and elective monarchy that operated until the departure of the Dalai Lama after the Chinese annexation of the territory. Since then the Dalai Lama operated as constitutional monarch in the Tibetan government in exile, until in 2011 he renounced all political office, limiting himself to being the head of the Gelug school and protocol hierarch of Tibetan Buddhism.

Transylvania

After the Hungarian kingdom suffered defeat in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Turkish armies of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the State was left "orphaned", as King Louis II of Hungary died in the contest. Ferdinand I of Habsburg immediately claimed the throne for himself, at the same time as Count John Szapolyai, both of whom were finally legitimately crowned. This led to the separation of the Hungarian kingdom into three parts, a western part under the control of the Germanic Empire, a central part under Turkish rule, and an eastern part under the control of the Hungarian nobility in the form of the Grand Principality of Transylvania. In this way, beginning with Stephen Báthory in 1571 and ending with Francis Rákóczi II in 1711, in this region of the former Hungarian kingdom the Hungarian nobility practiced elective monarchy throughout these decades, maintaining a cordial situation of semi-vassalage with the Ottoman Empire., and aiming to recover the Hungarian region under the control of the Germanic emperors. This situation ended with Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg, King of Hungary, who dissolved the title of Prince of Transylvania, expelled the Turks and reunified the three parts of the kingdom.

Current

Andorra

The Co-Princes of Andorra are the heads of state of Andorra and these are the Bishop of Urgel and the President of France, both elected by forces external to the Andorrans.

Cambodia

The Royal Throne Council of Cambodia or simply Royal Throne Council (Khmer: ក្រុមប្រឹក្សារាជបល្ល័ង្ក) is a nine-member constitutional body of the Kingdom of Cambodia whose purpose is to elect the new King of Cambodia once than the previous one has died or abdicated. Cambodia is an elective monarchy in which the head of state is appointed by the Council from among the members of the two royal houses of Cambodia (the House of Sisowath and the House of Norodom). It is composed of the seven members in the line of succession to the Head of the Royal Government of Cambodia (the Prime Minister; the Presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate; the Vice Presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate; and the Second Vice Presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate) by the two heads of the Orders of Mahanikay and Thammayut. The vote of the members of the Council is secret.

Vatican City

The Vatican City State maintains this system, through the election of the Pope in Conclave, that is, the meeting of the cardinals, who have the role of prince electors. At first the Pope, as bishop of Rome, was elected by the people of Rome. Later the electoral college was restricted to the parish priests of the Roman churches (as was the case with the other bishops of each city). The cardinals, in turn chosen by the Pope, remain holders of a parish in Rome.

Malaysia

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, sometimes translated as "king of Malaysia" In Western sources, he is elected every five years from among the nine local Malay monarchs and exercises decorative functions as head of state.

Samoa

Samoa forms an independent parliamentary Monarchy. The 1960 constitution, which formally took effect after the country's independence, is based on the Parliamentary Democracy of the United Kingdom, modified to take into account the habits of Samoa. Since independence, the two great Samoan chiefs have been appointed jointly from the position of head of state. The previous head of state, Malietoa Tanumafili II, who died on May 12, 2007 at the age of 94, held this position since the death of the second great chief in 1963. His successor Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi has been appointed by the legislature for a mandate of 5 years (being re-elected in 2012) the title O le Ao o le Malo and the treatment of "Highness" but by limiting the terms of the Head of State to five years (re-electable), Samoa has thus become a de facto Republic.

Chiefdoms

• The cacique of the indigenous ngäbe whose territories are divided between the two Central American republics of Costa Rica and Panama, is vitally elected by a council of elders. The current cacique is the Costa Rican Pedro Palacios Romero.
• The Maori Monarchy of New Zealand is elected by the vote of Maori tribal leaders. The current monarch is Tūheitia Paki elected in 2006.