Political System Of Bhutan

A constitutional monarchy since 2008, fifty-three elected seats, and a King who cannot veto legislation.

Bhutan is a unitary state and a constitutional monarchy. It is one of very few countries in the world where the King is the formal head of a state religion as well as the head of the state, and one of the few where a traditional monarchy was voluntarily, and at the monarch's own initiative, converted into a constitutional one. <h2>How it got here</h2> Under the Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who reigned from 1972 to 2006, Bhutan began a deliberate political modernisation: gradual village-level democratic reform, the reintroduction of the imperial title Druk Gyalpo in 1981, and pressure on the émigré democratic opposition of the 1980s. In December 2007 the King asked whether the people wanted a constitutional monarchy or to retain absolute monarchy. In March 2008 a national referendum returned an overwhelming majority for a constitutional monarchy, and the first Constitution was promulgated in July 2008. He abdicated in December 2006 in favour of his son, who was crowned in November 2008. The current King is Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who married the Queen Consort, Jetsun Pema, and has four children. <h2>The King</h2> Under the Constitution the King retains substantive an.