Royal dictatorship

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A royal dictatorship is the personal seizure and exercise of power by the monarch in a monarchy in which his power is otherwise limited .

Definition - typology - delimitation of terms

Apart from the epoch of absolutism , in which kings had de facto dictatorial power, royal dictatorships have appeared since the 18th century.

Their common features were the existence of a constitution , parliament and political parties , all of which were lifted or temporarily suspended by a political overthrow led by the monarch and carried out by the military. Yugoslavia and Romania have additional similarities: the simultaneous threat from communist- revolutionary leftists who acted according to the instructions of the CPSU , as well as from right-wing extremists who sought to establish “ states of order” on the model of Mussolini and Hitler , turned out to be a dilemma for the monarchy.

Well-known examples

Gustav III in Sweden

procedure

On November 30, 1718, King Charles XII fell. at the siege of Frederikshald , without leaving an heir. On December 6th, his sister Ulrike Eleonore was elected reigning queen. However, she had to renounce the absolutism of the Swedish kings from the Wittelsbach dynasty and give up royal sovereignty.

In 1719, the new constitution of February 21 of that year deprived the king of all power. The estates (the Reichstag ) became the sole bearers of popular sovereignty. The king was only allowed to travel abroad and to transfer or remove officials with the approval of the Reichstag. Almost the only privilege left to the king was elevation to the nobility.

1720–1772 was the epoch of the so-called freedom time (Swedish: Frihetstiden ). The weak and powerless kings Friedrich I of Hessen-Kassel (1720–1751) and Adolf Friedrich von Holstein-Gottorp (1751–1771) “ruled”. This was particularly difficult for Adolf Friedrich's wife, Queen Luise Ulrike (Swedish. Lovisa Ulrika , 1720–1782), a sister of Frederick II the Great, who tirelessly worked on her son, Crown Prince Gustav, who was born in 1746, to help strengthen the king's power to do. King Friedrich himself advised Gustav to moderate.

In 1771 King Adolf Friedrich died, his son Gustav III. took the oath on the constitution of 1720. In his speech from the throne in front of the estates, he introduced himself as the “first citizen in a free people”. Soon afterwards, under the impression of the 1st partition of Poland (August 5, 1772), which was attributed to the weakness of the royal power (Sweden saw itself threatened here by Russia, which aspirated to Finland , and by Denmark , which its former provinces of Skåne , Halland and Blekinge wanted to bring back) the royalist party intensified its agitation and received support from France , on whose subsidies the Swedish economy depended.

In 1772, the Finnish Colonel Jakob Magnus Sprengtporten founded the political club Svenska botten and organized a military coup in Finland. On August 16, Sveaborg and Helsinki were in the hands of the putschists. Four days earlier, the putschists under Johan Christopher Toll succeeded in crowning the revolt in the important garrison town of Kristianstad in Skåne. On August 19, the parading bodyguard to the king. He gave a fiery speech in which he asked for the support of the Guard in the abolition of party rule. In a few hours Stockholm fell into his hands without bloodshed. The Reichsrat was arrested, and many prominent members of the Reichstag went behind bars. The coup was financially supported by the Swedish money nobility, especially the Stockholm banking family Grill. By his seizure of power Gustav III got. in conflict with strong social forces: constitutional, which were anchored in the nobility, and social, which came from the peasantry ( ofrälse ).

At the end of the year 1772 the new constitution came into force, which was mainly by Gustav III. itself was worked out. Among other things, it was noted there that the king alone (“he and no other”) ruled the kingdom and was only responsible “before God and the fatherland”. Incidentally, the same wording was used again, this time with reference to the President, after 160 years in the Polish constitution of 1935 drawn up by Józef Piłsudski . The State Council and the authorities owed responsibility only to the King. The king appointed the officials, only he had the right of ennoblement. He disposed of all state resources alone, but was not allowed to impose any new taxes without the approval of the estates.

In 1774, censorship was introduced: it was still possible to criticize the officials, but not the king or his foreign policy. Attacks on the monarch or the constitution could be punished as treason.

In 1778, under the influence of his uncle Frederick the Great and against fierce opposition from the Swedish Protestant bishops, the king introduced freedom of religion. Jews , Catholics and Moravians were now allowed to practice their religion freely.

In 1782 the Jews were given homeland rights in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Norrköping and were allowed to build synagogues there.

1789: A revision of the 1772 constitution gave the king even greater power. He was now allowed to declare war on his own and appoint the members of the State Council alone. As a result, the Reichsrat disappeared after 500 years and was replaced by the Council of Ministers ( Conseil ). The monarch became chairman of the Supreme Court, where he had two votes. The farmers were allowed from now manors buy, the cities received a confirmation of their privileges. Gustav's new revolution meant that the peasants were given full independence and that a new middle class was now emerging. As a result, Gustav generated an even stronger hatred of him in aristocratic circles.

On March 16, 1792 Gustav III. hit and seriously wounded during a masked ball in the Stockholm Opera from the bullet of the assassin Captain Johann Jakob Anckarström , who was a noble manor owner. He died on March 29th.

analysis

The royal dictatorship Gustav III. In some aspects he had the features of the "enlightened despotism" that was widespread in Europe at the time, he himself was reminiscent of his uncle Frederick the Great in many ways, to whom he had a rather cloudy relationship. In many ways he was more modern than his uncle or other contemporary rulers, such as B. Maria Theresa or Catherine II , because he was much more receptive to modern economic theories of that time (so-called physiocratism ). His royal dictatorship was a combination of anti-constitutional and anti-democratic tendencies and measures and a combination of the will for economic reform and humanitarian pathos.

Alexander I in Yugoslavia

In 1929, Alexander I abolished the parties and the constitution and suspended civil liberties. The king made himself head of a unity party and entrusted the formation of a government to the Guard Commander Petar Živković (1879–1947). The coup was met with no resistance, except from radical Croatian nationalists.

In the same year, the former Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS) was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . The 33 districts were abolished and 9 banks created, which had no national or denominational basis. A new constitution came into force, a second chamber, the Senate , was created, half of which were appointed by the King. The king also selected the ministers, and parliament had no power to overthrow the government.

From 1929 to 1934 the royal dictatorship did not succeed in creating peace and order in the country. Croatians and Slovenes boycotted the election and there were student and peasant unrest. Attacks on the railway were carried out, behind which the Croatian nationalists under the leadership of the lawyer Ante Pavelić stood.

On October 9, 1934, Alexander I and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were assassinated in Marseille . His underage son Peter II was proclaimed king. Prince Paul Karađorđević (1893–1976), a distant relative of Alexander, was appointed Prince Regent . Paul, a great art connoisseur, had little interest in politics, but he wanted to carry out his cousin's political will and preserve the unity of Yugoslavia. The new Prime Minister Bogoljub Jevtić tried to save the unity party created by Alexander.

In 1936 the authoritarian regime of Yugoslavia under Milan Stojadinović followed the policy of rapprochement with Italy recommended by the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval . The borders of the country were recognized by Hitler and Mussolini. The fascist influence in Yugoslavia grew.

On February 6, 1939, the Prince Regent dismissed Stojadinović and returned to the parliamentary form of government. King Alexander's 1929 constitution remained in force, while Prince Paul retained decisive influence.

On March 25, 1941, Prince Paul signed the Three Power Agreement with Italy and the Greater German Reich. Two days later, a military coup led by Air Force General Bora Mirković overthrew the regent, who was regarded as pro-German. On April 6 of this year, the Wehrmacht launched an attack on Belgrade. This marked the end of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although it had a king and government in exile in London until 1945 .

Fu'ad I. in Egypt

1928 suspended the Egyptian-Sudanese King Fu'ad I. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Egypt in 1923 and issued in conjunction with the 1930 to 1933 dictatorship ruling Prime Minister Ismail Sedki Pasha in 1930 a new constitution , which is a reactionary electoral law and press censorship introduced the work of political parties and freedom of assembly and expression . The role of the parliament was limited to an advisory status. In 1933, however, Fu'ad I had to dismiss Sedki after mass demonstrations, but until 1935 he exerted an even greater influence on daily Egyptian politics. In December 1935 he reinstated the earlier liberal constitution. Fu'ad I. died in 1936 and handed over the rule to his son Faruq , who was enthroned in 1937 and ruled much more democratically than his predecessor. The political system of Egypt from 1923 lasted until the revolution of 1952 .

Charles II in Romania

Karl was born in 1893 as the son of Crown Prince Ferdinand . In 1921 he was forced to marry Helena of Greece. Crown Prince Michael I was born in the same year .

In 1922 Ion IC Brătianu , who came from one of the most powerful political families in Romania, came to power and in 1923 introduced a constitutional monarchy based on the British model; a two-chamber parliament with direct, general and secret elections to the lower house and only nominal royal power. In 1925 Prince Karl fled with his lover Magda Lupescu .

On July 20, 1927, King Ferdinand I died of cancer. The Prime Minister Vintilă Brătianu had Prince Karl excluded from the line of succession and proclaimed his five-year-old son Michael as king. The country was ruled by Bratianu with a Regency Council. In the eyes of the Romanians, Karl was the victim of a political intrigue by the Bratianu clan. In the same year the right wing politician Corneliu Zelea Codreanu founded the fascist and anti-Semitic organization Legion Archangel Michael .

In 1928 the military prepared a coup d'état aimed at overthrowing Bratianus and acceding to the throne. However, Scotland Yard prevented Charles from leaving England. In 1929 Bratianu lost power to the leader of the peasant party Iuliu Maniu , who was now the new prime minister. He suggested to Karl that he break with Lupescu and return to Romania. On June 5th, 1930 Karl returned to Romania, on June 8th Michael was deposed and Karl was proclaimed king. Helena Lupescu, whom Karl had kept hidden for the time being, soon followed.

In 1931 Nicolae Iorga , who was very receptive to Codreanu's ideas, became the new Prime Minister. Karl tried to close a political alliance with Codreanu, which the latter refused. He had many followers, especially in the countryside, and Romanian fascism became a serious threat to the monarchy. In order to create a counterweight to Codreanu's supporters, who called themselves Iron Guard from 1930 onwards , the king called the paramilitary youth organization Straja Țării into being.

In 1932 Karl created a secret police that was directed against fascists and communists alike and was tied to his person. This authority was not satisfied with surveillance; they arrested, tortured and liquidated as they pleased. In the following year, acts of violence increased on both sides: the Iron Guards committed murders, arson and attacks on police stations and Jewish houses. Karl's police officers carried out house searches and brutal interrogations, and about 18,000 guardsmen were arrested. On December 29, the king declared a state of emergency , which was extended twice a year until the end of his reign.

In 1937 Codreanu's party won 66 parliamentary seats and became the second largest group. Anti-Semitic demonstrations raged in the cities. The king dissolved the newly elected parliament before it could even sit and transferred power to Octavian Goga , the head of the right-wing National Democrats. Goga urged General Ion Antonescu to be politically active. Antonescu accepted the post of Defense Minister. In the second half of the year, the king dissolved all political parties, declared himself a dictator and transferred the post of prime minister to Patriarch Miron Cristea in order to win the Orthodox Church on his side.

In 1938, Carol's police hunted the Iron Guard; Codreanu was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor. On November 30th, he was murdered in prison with 13 supporters.

In 1940 Hitler and Stalin forced large territories to cede to the USSR , Bulgaria and Hungary . On September 3, the Iron Guard occupied the radio station and switchboard in Bucharest . Carol II asked Antonescu to mediate, who demanded full powers and the abdication of Charles II and guaranteed his move abroad with Magda Lupescu. On September 6th, Karl signed a manifesto in which he handed over the crown to his son Michael without uttering the word abdication. A special train, fully loaded with furniture and paintings from the royal palace, brought the couple into exile in Switzerland. Antonescu's military dictatorship replaced Carol's royal dictatorship.

Gyanendra in Nepal

On June 1, 2001, his brother Birendra's Nepalese royal family was killed under mysterious circumstances. Crown Prince Dipendra , the perpetrator according to official reports, died on June 4th. Gyanendra was proclaimed king that day.

On February 1, 2005, Gyanendra overturned the government after accusing it of failure to prepare for the April 2005 elections and fight against Maoists . The Maoists have been fighting the monarchy in the country for years and want to build a Marxist state. On February 2, Gyanendra himself took over the management of an emergency cabinet and thus became head of state and government in one person. On April 24, 2006, in a televised address, he announced the immediate reinstatement of the former parliament.

On May 18, 2006, parliament passed a resolution that was unanimously adopted, making far-reaching changes to the state order: King Gyanendra loses command of the military and is only supposed to perform representative tasks, but no longer exercise any influence on state affairs.

On December 28, 2007, the parliament voted with more than two thirds of the votes for an amendment to the transitional constitution, which in fact meant the abolition of the monarchy. A majority of 270 of the 329 MPs were in favor of a federal democratic republic as the form of government. The king was formally disempowered on May 28, 2008 by a constituent assembly. The elections for the constituent assembly on April 10, 2008 had resulted in a surprising landslide victory for the Maoists. On July 21, 2008, Ram Baran Yadav was elected the first President of the Republic of Nepal.

literature

General historical representations
  • Sten Carlsson, Jerker Rosén: Svensk historia. Volume 1-2. Bonnier et al., Stockholm 1961.
  • Robert Miquel: Les derniers rois de l'Europe (= Priority 3). R. Laffont, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-221-07300-2 .
Literature on the individual royal dictatorships
  • Roland D. Barley: The Magician King. Gustav III and Sweden's golden age. Steidl, Göttingen 1996, ISBN 3-88243-418-X .
  • Predrag Marković : The "legitimacy" of the royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia and public opinion 1929-1939. In: Erwin Oberländer . Rolf Ahmann (Ed.): Authoritarian Regime in East Central and Southeast Europe 1919–1944. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2001, ISBN 3-506-76186-2 , pp. 577-631.
  • Michael Schmidt-Neke : Development and expansion of the royal dictatorship in Albania (1912–1939). Formation of government, mode of rule and power elite in a young Balkan state (= Southeast European Works 84). Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-54321-0 (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 1985).
  • Krista Zach: The legionary movement in the Romanian party state, under the royal dictatorship and with General Antonescu in power. Contributions to the analysis of the militant Romanian nationalism and conservatism in the years between the world wars. Munich 1970 (Munich, Ludwig Maximilians University, Master's thesis).
Further and supplementary literature
  • Martin Broszat (ed.): Dtv world history of the 20th century. Volume 4: Ernst Nolte : The fascist movements. The crisis of the liberal system and the development of fascisms (= dtv 4004). German paperback publishing house, Munich 1966

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen, Klaus Landfried (Eds.): The election of parliaments and other state organs / Volume II: Africa: Political organization and representation in Africa De Gruyter, 1978, ISBN 978-3-11-004518- 5 , p. 252.