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

1.35K viewsOther

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.

In: Other

17 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

No… *but*.

The fact that we are a monarchy really affects how our law works. Our prime minister has more power over our country than most people’s, because he or she is in theory directing the power of an absolute monarch. Our government’s ‘turning circle’ is very tight, we can respond very fast if we have to, because the things are actually being done by a Crown on Parliament’s advice.

So while the royals have no hard power (but huge soft power, they’re more like ‘what if the flag was a person’ than ‘what if the president was president for life’), the monarchy itself has a lot of power even before you figure that the PM has to chat with the monarch regularly and keep them posted on how the kingdom’s doing.

If this doesn’t sound very democratic, you’re very right. We are running a very old fashioned model of democracy and it has all kinds of problems with it.

You are viewing 1 out of 17 answers, click here to view all answers.