The purpose of this research is to examine two contemporary royal houses, those of Spain and England, with a view toward identifying how they function and the strategies they use to promote the goals of their respective countries. The plan of the research will be to set forth each of the monarchies in the context of contemporary political and social history and then to discuss attributes of each entity that are relevant to the implementation of the goals of the countries. Comparisons and contrasts will be made between the English and Spanish cases with a view toward evaluating relative effectiveness and forecasting possible lines of development.
The course of the 20th century was marked by the devolution of the monarchies of Western Europe that had been decisive markers of history since the time of Charlemagne. A combination of petty and great wars and various kinds and degrees of cultural transformation between the 10th and 20th centuries dispossessed petty and great princes of their thrones. The growing momentum of republican/democratic government, evolution of political and social theory, and revolutionary dynamics had the effect of demystifying what was not dethroned in a context of political rivalries and missional regime change. In some cases, such as that of Russia, the royal family was altogether disposed of by the Bolshevik revolution as a guarantor of permanent regime change.
Two European monarchies showed a remarkable resilience regarding their traditional roles into the 21st century: Spain and England. The English constitutional monarchy has been characterized by continuity, despite changes in the scope and limit of royal political authority. The Spanish monarchy, though suppressed during the Franco interregnum, returned to a position of influence as a symbol of political stability in the mid-1970s, and the contemporary form of government in Spain is that of parliamentary monarchy instead of FrancoÆs fascism.
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