Absolute monarchy

King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq are the current absolute monarchs of Saudi Arabia and Oman, respectively.

Absolute monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign is the sole source of political power, unconstrained by constitutions, legislatures or other checks on their authority. Throughout history, there have been many examples of absolute monarchs, with some famous examples including Louis XIV and Frederick the Great.

The number of absolute monarchies in the world vary but current datasets agree that Brunei, Eswatini, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are absolute monarchies, while some datasets include Bahrain, Bhutan, Jordan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Morocco, Tonga, Vatican City and the United Arab Emirates.

Though absolute monarchies are sometimes supported by legal documents (such as the King's Law of Denmark-Norway), they are distinct from constitutional monarchies, in which the authority of the monarch is restricted (e.g. by legislature or unwritten customs) or balanced by that of other officials, such as a prime minister, as is in the case of the United Kingdom, or the Nordic countries.

Absolute monarchies are distinct from hereditary dictatorships such as North Korea, Duvalier Haiti or Ba'athist Syria.

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