The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights - the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- In a constitutional monarchy, the Sovereign retains specific rights to consult, encourage, and warn advisors.
- In plain terms
- The king or queen has the right to talk, encourage, and warn others.
- What can you take from it?
- Even in constitutional monarchies, the sovereign holds subtle but real influence.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do monarchs still matter today?
- What rights are meaningful without power?
Another view
Modern monarchs often hold less actual power than these rights suggest.
More from Walter Bagehot
A cabinet is a combining committee, - a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the state to the executive part of the state. In it…
Permalink to quote #5 Nations touch at their summits.
Permalink to quote #7 Under a cabinet constitution at a sudden emergency this people can choose a ruler for the occasion. It is quite possible and even likely that he would not be r…
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
The whole Constitution has been erected upon the assumption that the King not only is capable of doing wrong but is more likely to do wrong than other men if h…
A. P. HerbertA. P. Herbert quote #19 The town was abuzz with talk of the King's animals. We were fed regularly, and the King and Queen quite often enjoyed feeling my abdomen to see if I weren't pr…
Cyrano de BergeracCyrano de Bergerac quote #28 As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant…
Byron WhiteByron White quote #1