Is it possible for an established democratic country to directly switch to a monarchy?

Question

Say, a country has well-established democratic doctrines and principles. Is it practically possible for that country to directly switch to a monarchy? By practical, I mean the country must last reasonably long, and not just some short-lived monarchy, overthrown by the discontented public.

I'm talking about a direct reform, e.g. a president will reform the government. Countries who had long series of wars before achieving this are not counted.

On a side note, are there real world examples for countries with these types of histories (existing and still living)? I can't seem to find any.

Answer 1

Yes, and in fact France did it.

Basically, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected President of France, during the Second Republic. When he was term-limited out of office, he "self-couped" and then held a plebescite. There was at the time and remain questions of the free and fair nature of the plebescite, but he won by a wide margin, and the Second Empire was born.

Another "negative case" is the Brazilian Constitutional Referendum in 1993. When Brazil redemocratized in 1983, one of the conditions was a vote on whether Brazil should be a Monarchy or a Republic, and if it were a democracy should it have a Presidential system or a Parliamentary one. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the status quo, or a Republican Presidential system. However, it is conceivable that a country with a relatively strong democratic tradition could have voted for a monarchy, although it did not.

Answer 2

In theory, this is possible. Most of the states which are generally considered democratic have constitutions which describe a democratic process for changing the constitution itself. This process could in theory be used to convert the constitution from a democratic one into a monarchy.

However, such constitutional amendment clauses usually require a large part of all elected representatives (usually more than just a qualified majority) to agree to it, and there is little incentive for politicians to disenfranchise themselves by handing their powers over to a monarch. Usually the trend goes into the opposite direction: In all the still existing monarchies in Europe the parliaments usurped more and more powers from their monarchs until they became de-facto democracies with monarchs who are technically still heads of the state but are practically politically irrelevant.

In some countries there are even political parties which advocate monarchy and pledge to propose such constitutional changes if elected. The irony of trying to build a monarchy through participation in the democratic system is obvious, but it is the most obvious way for monarchists to achieve their goal without resorting to violence.

Answer 3

In actual fact there are more examples that just the Second French Republic becoming the French Second Empire:

• Napoleon Bonaparte; First Consul of the French Republic (massively surprised nobody's already mentioned this) had himself declared Emperor Napoleon I by plebiscite in 1804,

• The Italian Republic, formed out of the Cisalpine Republic and in a personal union with France at the time (i.e. Napoleon was also it's President at the same time as being First Consul of France) became the Kingdom of Italy in 1805.

• The Batavian Republic; a 'sister republic' to the French First Republic; became the Kingdom of Holland in 1806 with Napoleon's brother, Louis, as its King. Incidentally; under the previous constitution to the Batavian republic; the Republic of the United Provinces; the Netherlands was a republic but under the de facto control of the Stadtholders of the House of Orange. On Napoleon's defeat in 1814/5 it was decided to re-establish the Netherlands under the rule of the House of Orange again but as a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic.

• Jean Bedel Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic, declared the country the Central African Empire in 1976 with himself as Emperor. He was overthrown in 1979 and the republic restored.

• It happened three times in Haiti: one of the independence leaders, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, had himself declared Emperor Jacques I in emulation of Napoleon. The republic was restored after his assassination; but one of his lieutenants, Henry Christophe; after a brief period as President, declared himself King of Haiti in 1811. He only ruled part of Haiti, however, and was overthrown and killed after a civil war in 1820. Much later; in 1849; President Faustin Soulouque of Haiti declared himself Emperor Faustin I. He ruled until overthrown in 1859 and the republic yet again restored.

• The First Spanish Republic was replaced in 1873 with a monarchy in 1873.

• The Republic of Lucca was transformed into the Principality of Lucca and Piombino for his sister, Elisa. It later after Napoleon's defeat became an independent duchy.

• Cambodia, after being a Kingdom, republic, communist republic and then republic, became a monarchy again in 1993.

• Hungary; after a brief period as a republic and a communist insurrection after world war two, became a Kingdom after the defeat of the communists; albeit a Kingdom with a vacant throne that was ruled by the 'regent', Miklos Horthy. The Kingdom lasted until 1946.

• China; after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911/1912, first had President Yuan Shikai attempt to make himself Emperor in 1916, and secondly had a brief restoration of the Qing Dynasty under Pu Yi in July 1917.

• The Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo was inititially a republic (with Pu Yi as President) until Pu Yi was declared Emperor two years later.

• The Mexican monarchy (after being overthrown in 1822) was restored in 1863 under the Austrian archduke Maximilian. This led to a civil war and he was eventually overthrown.

Lastly:

• Former President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia attempted to have himself declared the King of the Gambia towards the end of his rule (incidentally, the Gambia was briefly a commonwealth realm with Elizabeth II as its Queen after independence from Britain). He was not; however, successful.

• On the restoration of democracy in Fiji in 1997 and its admittance back into the commonwealth, there was talk of restoring Elizabeth II as Queen of Fiji; where the monarchy had been overthrown in 1987. The Queen's head continued to appear on coins and banknotes even after the republic was declared. A restoration did not happen but Elizabeth II was recognised as 'High Chief of Fiji', a position that was later abolished in 2012. Current Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was quoted as saying early in his tenure as PM that he was in favour of restoring the Queen as Queen of Fiji; but he later backtracked from this; for example removing the Queen's portrait from coins and banknotes

Answer 4

To throw my 2 solidii on to the fire, that was basically what happened in:

• Ancient Roman Republic transitioning to Empire

• Novgorod Republic can arguably count as well

Answer 5

The answer is Yes, however there are a couple of factors that would need to be considered. Firstly, whether or not the country in question already has a family of royal lineage - most European countries definitely do however for countries that don't have one it would be a much difficult process as you would need to moreorless 'create' a royal family and ascribe the powers to this family through statutory instruments effectively creating a parliamentary/Constitutional monarch. Secondly, if the general public are willing to give up their rights to "self-rule" which is in effect what we have with most democracies. This might be a difficult one to swing as there would need to be a more than a vote in parliament - there would need to be a special referendum, special in the sense that a set of unique parameters would need to be defined such as a minimum turn out for the results to be validate (probably something like 80 - 90% of the electorate) - It would be quite messy :) I slightly disagree that Napoleon did this but I think a very historical reference would be Biblical Israel when the people demanded a king and Saul was given the crown! There might also be some examples in Chinese history, but I'm not 100% sure.