Dataset of the Day: World's Remaining Monarchies, Goodbye Nepal

While reading the newspaper last week I came across an article about the end of monarchy rule in Nepal. For 239 years the nation of Nepal had been under the rule of a monarch and as of last week the newly elected Constituent Assembly voted to change themselves to a secular republic in a vote of 560 to 4.

This news made me think more about the system of a monarchy government. When thinking of monarchies I usually do not associate them with the present day. Instead, I think of past times when ancient kings and queens ruled over vast kingdoms governing the common people that lived there. Living in a democratic society all my life in the USA where monarchies seem foreign and romantic I had to ask myself, “Are there still many monarchies around the world today?”

After doing some research on the matter I was able to conclude that yes, there are in fact quite a few monarchies existing in our world today. I came across this article: Reuters The article shows where the remaining monarchies in the world are located. It also says who the ruling monarchs are and gives other interesting facts about the monarchy. I then created a dataset on the topic that can be found on Finder!: Reuters/CIA World Factbook, World’s Remaining Monarchies after end of Nepal’s Monarchy, World, 5.29.2008

It is important to note that not all these monarchies are absolute monarchies where a single monarch rules unhindered with no help from a constitution or another law-governing body. In fact most of these monarchies are constitutional monarchies. A constitutional monarchy is a system of government in which a monarch is guided by a constitution whereby the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the ruler are spelled out in written law.