Monarchy is the oldest form of government in the United Kingdom. In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State. The British Monarchy is known as a constitutional monarchy. This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament.
A monarchy is a kind of government where a monarch, a kind of hereditary ruler (someone who inherits their office), is the head of state. Monarchs usually rule until they die or pass down (when a monarch resigns it is called abdication). Most monarchies are hereditary, but some are elected.
Limited government: The government has only the powers that constitution gives it.
Rule of law: The Government and its officers are always subject to the law, never above it.
Federalism: The sharing of power between federal and state government.
Separation of powers: Refers to the division of government responsibilities into distinct branches to limit any one branch from exercising the core functions of another. The intent is to prevent the concentration of power.
Checks and balances: each branch of the national government can check the actions of the other two branches.
Popular sovereignty: The concept that political power sets with the people who can create, alter and abolish government. People express themselves through voting and free participation in government.
Similarities between Japanese and European feudalism include a social system of various classes with little possibility of mobility from one class to another, the proffering of allegiance in exchange for protection, a warrior class with a code of honor and a peasant class tied to the land. Both societies also had clergy that functioned outside the normal feudal system.
