I’m making a fantasy novel. In this one there is a monarchy system, where 4 families rule in turns. After the current monarch dies, the next family in the circle most present an heir from their family to ruse the nation until they die and then the next family takes the throne.
What would you call this government model? Oligarchic monarchy? Poli-Monarchy? Help me with some suggestions. I’m also not sure if this has happened in the history, I can’t find anything about it.
Round-Robin Royalty
Sounds like an aristocratic oligarchy to me.
Musical heirs.
As a classification I think I would call it a Monarchic Oligarchy, or maybe a Cyclical Monarchic Oligarchy, but maybe as a more common term I would say something like the Council of Monarchy or something along those lines.
So a monarch that can’t appoint their own heir really isn’t much of a monarch. The point of being a monarch is not being beholden to any rules.
This is just an oligarchy with rules that don’t benefit 3/4th of the participants–which is as odd as it sounds.
After all, the point of 4-5 year terms in modern democracies is that you don’t have to wait your whole life to take over.
It’s an interesting concept, but coming to this arangement–and maintaining it in perpetuity–must have been an extremely extrordinary set of circumstances.
The point of being a monarch is not being beholden to any rules.
Not really. Absolute monarchy is not the only kind of monarchy. There are also constitutional monarchies and various in-between. Even absolute monarchies usually are defined by some rules (e.g. succession of power in hereditary monarchies).
Look at historical examples like the Serene Republic of Venice.
Basically you have an oligopoly that controls the levers of power and elects one of their own to be the leader.
Also read up on selectorate theory. There’s a good book called The Dictator’s Handbook that goes into detail, and for a shorter way to consume this info you can watch the YouTube video Rules for Rulers which is based on the same book.
All governments are nested resources distribution streams. Resources flow up to the decision maker, which then distributes resources back down the chain to buy loyalty to maintain power. Regimes change when one side or the other experiences a major disruption.
Sounds a bit like Malaysia, where the “The Yang di-Pertuan Agong [the constitutional monarch] is elected by the Conference of Rulers, comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states, with the office de facto rotated between them, making Malaysia one of the world’s few elective monarchies.”
Perhaps a Rotational Monarchy?
Sounds similar to how the monarch of Malaysia is chosen. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_Malaysian_thrones
The next national ruler is chosen from the nine hereditary state sultans. It’s technically an elective monarchy, but there is a conventional rotation order among the states.
A recipe for frequent civil wars
