Monarchy in my understanding implies the rule of the monarch.
The Monarchs in most EU countries do not rule, through some have some restricted political influence.
I think the UK might be an exception, where as far as I remember the royalty still theoretically holds pretty much all the power just politely decide to pretend they don't know they still rule. But that might be a misconception of mine.
I would say that it is the rest of the country politely pretending that the Queen actually holds the enormous power she is legally entitled to. It is the law that is a polite fiction.
That the British people should choose to maintain the monarchy, or that Canada and Australia should choose to have the Queen as their Head of State, confuses outsiders (particularly Americans) no end.
The king is the head of state, so how this is not a monarchy?
> Monarchy in my understanding implies the rule of the monarch.
There are two types of monarchies:
- constitucional, like belgium, netherlands, norway and japan
- absolute: saudi arabia and the vatican city.