The role of a king

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It: a new monarch in Britain.

For 70 years, the people of the United Kingdom saw wars and pandemics, the formation of the European Union and Britain’s exit from it, as well as 15 different prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The one constant through it all, Queen Elizabeth II. Her passing marks the end of a consequential era.

Of course, the nation now has a new monarch with a lot to live up to.

Here to help us understand the king’s role in modern England and beyond is Robert Hazell. He is a professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London.

REICHARD: Professor, good morning!

ROBERT HAZELL, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: For those of us in the U.S. not terribly familiar with the role of the sovereign, help us understand what it means to be king in modern England. What is his constitutional role and what are his limitations?

HAZELL: The king is our head of state, but it’s a purely ceremonial role, so the king has no effective political power. And in that respect, he's just like the other monarchs around Western Europe. We're not the only monarchy in Europe. There are seven others in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Spain. So it's a perfectly common arrangement in European countries to be a hereditary monarchy, but also to be a thriving modern democracy. There's no incompatibility between those two things because the monarch, nowadays, has no political power.

REICHARD: Beyond just what the constitution spells out, what else is in the king’s job description?

HAZELL: The king has all the normal responsibilities of a head of state, and it is actually a busy workload. So the king formally makes all senior public appointments of all our senior judges, of senior politicians, he appoints all the Secretaries of State in the cabinet and the other ministers, and he appoints the prime minister. And he summons and dissolves Parliament and every year at the State Opening of Parliament, he opens the new parliamentary session. He gives royal assent to laws passed by Parliament. So he does all those things in exactly the same way as the other constitutional monarchs in other European democracies.

REICHARD: Is the king permitted to weigh in on policy or is he expected to stay above the fray when it comes to politics?

HAZELL: The King remains above the political fray. He has a weekly audience with the Prime Minister and if he has any concerns about government policy questions, that is the occasion when those can be expressed. But that weekly audience is completely confidential. It never leaks because there are only the two of them in the room, and they respect confidentiality, and no record is kept. So we will never know what the king says each week to the Prime Minister. But that is the one main opportunity that the king might have to influence government policy.

REICHARD: Professor, what do you believe will change and what might King Charles do differently from his mother? And if you could please address this idea of being defender of the faith, please.

HAZELL: He’s clearly going to be different from his mother in that he’s an old man. I can say that. He and I are the same age, both born in 1948. So he's 73. When she came to the throne, she was a glamorous young woman aged 25 and the nation immediately fell in love with her. People don't fall in love with unattractive old men, I can say that being of the same age. He has said that, in the past, that he wants to be remembered as defender of faith. And by that he was signaling he has a genuine interest, not just in the faith that he belongs to, which is the Anglican branch of Christianity, the Church of England. He's interested in other branches of Christianity. He's met the Pope and previous popes. He has a deep interest in Islam and other world religions. So I would expect at his coronation next year that those other faiths will be represented with small walk-on parts. Although the coronation will remain as its core, an Anglican ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. And at the core of the liturgy, there will be a Eucharist in which Charles will take a sacrament and sacred oaths. So he is religious, like his mother, but he has a wider interest in other faiths than I think Queen Elizabeth did have.

REICHARD: Help us understand something that may be confusing to some. King Charles is not just the king of the United Kingdom, he’s also the king of Canada and numerous other countries, right?

HAZELL: Yes. King Charles is king of 14 other countries around the world. He's king of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, and half a dozen other small islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, and also of countries in the Pacific, like Papua New Guinea. And those countries are known as the realms and in time, some of them may wish to become republics, as, for example, last year, Barbados did. So the Queen was Queen of Barbados until the end of last year when they changed their laws and became a republic. And the British monarchy has always said if any of these countries in future wish to give up having the British monarch as head of state and to become a republic, we would not dream of standing in their way. So we may see developments of that kind. But in some of those countries, think of Australia or Jamaica, the Constitution is extremely hard to amend. I mean, no doubt, for example, that in Jamaica, where successive prime ministers of both main political parties have said they want to become a republic, it's difficult for them to do so because it requires a two thirds vote in both Houses of Parliament, followed by a referendum. That's a high threshold and it's something, so far, they haven't achieved. So we may hear a lot about countries wishing to become republics. We'll wait to see how many of them succeed. But if they do find it difficult, it's because of their own local, political, or constitutional difficulties. There's no reluctance on the part of the British monarchy to let them go if that's what they want to do.

REICHARD: Robert Hazell is a professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London. Professor, so nice to talk with you. Thank you.

HAZELL: You’re very welcome.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It: a new monarch in Britain.

For 70 years, the people of the United Kingdom saw wars and pandemics, the formation of the European Union and Britain’s exit from it, as well as 15 different prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The one constant through it all, Queen Elizabeth II. Her passing marks the end of a consequential era.

Of course, the nation now has a new monarch with a lot to live up to.

Here to help us understand the king’s role in modern England and beyond is Robert Hazell. He is a professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London.

REICHARD: Professor, good morning!

ROBERT HAZELL, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: For those of us in the U.S. not terribly familiar with the role of the sovereign, help us understand what it means to be king in modern England. What is his constitutional role and what are his limitations?

HAZELL: The king is our head of state, but it’s a purely ceremonial role, so the king has no effective political power. And in that respect, he's just like the other monarchs around Western Europe. We're not the only monarchy in Europe. There are seven others in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Spain. So it's a perfectly common arrangement in European countries to be a hereditary monarchy, but also to be a thriving modern democracy. There's no incompatibility between those two things because the monarch, nowadays, has no political power.

REICHARD: Beyond just what the constitution spells out, what else is in the king’s job description?

HAZELL: The king has all the normal responsibilities of a head of state, and it is actually a busy workload. So the king formally makes all senior public appointments of all our senior judges, of senior politicians, he appoints all the Secretaries of State in the cabinet and the other ministers, and he appoints the prime minister. And he summons and dissolves Parliament and every year at the State Opening of Parliament, he opens the new parliamentary session. He gives royal assent to laws passed by Parliament. So he does all those things in exactly the same way as the other constitutional monarchs in other European democracies.

REICHARD: Is the king permitted to weigh in on policy or is he expected to stay above the fray when it comes to politics?

HAZELL: The King remains above the political fray. He has a weekly audience with the Prime Minister and if he has any concerns about government policy questions, that is the occasion when those can be expressed. But that weekly audience is completely confidential. It never leaks because there are only the two of them in the room, and they respect confidentiality, and no record is kept. So we will never know what the king says each week to the Prime Minister. But that is the one main opportunity that the king might have to influence government policy.

REICHARD: Professor, what do you believe will change and what might King Charles do differently from his mother? And if you could please address this idea of being defender of the faith, please.

HAZELL: He’s clearly going to be different from his mother in that he’s an old man. I can say that. He and I are the same age, both born in 1948. So he's 73. When she came to the throne, she was a glamorous young woman aged 25 and the nation immediately fell in love with her. People don't fall in love with unattractive old men, I can say that being of the same age. He has said that, in the past, that he wants to be remembered as defender of faith. And by that he was signaling he has a genuine interest, not just in the faith that he belongs to, which is the Anglican branch of Christianity, the Church of England. He's interested in other branches of Christianity. He's met the Pope and previous popes. He has a deep interest in Islam and other world religions. So I would expect at his coronation next year that those other faiths will be represented with small walk-on parts. Although the coronation will remain as its core, an Anglican ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. And at the core of the liturgy, there will be a Eucharist in which Charles will take a sacrament and sacred oaths. So he is religious, like his mother, but he has a wider interest in other faiths than I think Queen Elizabeth did have.

REICHARD: Help us understand something that may be confusing to some. King Charles is not just the king of the United Kingdom, he’s also the king of Canada and numerous other countries, right?

HAZELL: Yes. King Charles is king of 14 other countries around the world. He's king of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, and half a dozen other small islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, and also of countries in the Pacific, like Papua New Guinea. And those countries are known as the realms and in time, some of them may wish to become republics, as, for example, last year, Barbados did. So the Queen was Queen of Barbados until the end of last year when they changed their laws and became a republic. And the British monarchy has always said if any of these countries in future wish to give up having the British monarch as head of state and to become a republic, we would not dream of standing in their way. So we may see developments of that kind. But in some of those countries, think of Australia or Jamaica, the Constitution is extremely hard to amend. I mean, no doubt, for example, that in Jamaica, where successive prime ministers of both main political parties have said they want to become a republic, it's difficult for them to do so because it requires a two thirds vote in both Houses of Parliament, followed by a referendum. That's a high threshold and it's something, so far, they haven't achieved. So we may hear a lot about countries wishing to become republics. We'll wait to see how many of them succeed. But if they do find it difficult, it's because of their own local, political, or constitutional difficulties. There's no reluctance on the part of the British monarchy to let them go if that's what they want to do.

REICHARD: Robert Hazell is a professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London. Professor, so nice to talk with you. Thank you.

HAZELL: You’re very welcome.

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