Does the royal family in England have any real power, or is it just a ceremonial position?

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I know they once had all the power, but is the parliamentary government in full control now, or can the royals actually affect politics, administration, and control over the country?

Edit: Thank all of you so much for taking the time to answer. This includes all of you with theories of power behind the curtains. It’s actually quite fascinating, and I am still combing through comments.

A very special thanks goes out to all the people that have “politely” corrected my use of the word, “England”. I would remind you that questions are for the point of learning. I appreciate your contribution.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Executive authority in the UK stems from ‘The Crown’. This is where Parliament gets it’s authority from and can be seen as the “source” of governmental power and is the answer to the philosophical question “what gives you the right to rule?”

Now, “The Crown” is not the monarch. It is a separate political entity through which the Monarch exercises their executive power. However, only Parliament can tell The Crown how to exercise that power. The sitting monarch has ultimate executive authority as head of state, but can only exercise executive power with consent of Parliament. Now in theory, the sitting monarch has executive power beyond that dictated by Parliament, for example deployment of the armed forces, declaring war, signing (or refusing to sign) laws, but monarchs have never attempted to exercise that authority and most legal scholars agree that any attempt to do so would cause legal deadlock and break the entire system.

The UK system of government is like old software that’s been repeatedly patched and kind of works as it is but any attempt to go outside of it’s current parameters would cause the whole thing to fall apart. It could really do with a re-write, but that would cause so much political instability and chaos most people agree it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

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