ABSTRACT
Monarchies are governmental systems in which decision-making authority is centered in an individual who is like the “father” of the country and utilizes the trappings of royalty to represent himself to the people; power is kept in the royal family from one generation to the next, typically although not always from father to son. It is appropriate to begin a survey of the politics of governing in the Middle East with a discussion on monarchies. Beginning the discussion in this way helps us to better understand the developments that have swept the governing systems of the region since World War II—in some cases, completely changing these systems—as many of the states of the region were monarchies at the time of independence from the colonial powers. In fact, only in the British mandate of Palestine and where the French imposed a more direct form of colonial control (Lebanon, Syria) did monarchy not prevail.
