This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.

Course description

The English Revolution, The Glorious Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Meiji Restoration, the Chinese Revolution, the Iranian Revolution ¬- the overthrow of monarchical absolutism all over the world has paved the way for the transformation of societies and the development of institutions and values we recognize as "modern": constitutionalism, popular sovereignty, republicanism, democracy, equality, capitalism and the nation. The disappearance of a political institution that is centuries or in some cases millennia old represents a profound disruption from the past. Yet the idea of monarchy as both a political system and the symbol of a hierarchical form of social order continues to haunt the modern world. This course will examine the institution of monarchy as an historical phenomenon across nations. Using case-studies, it will focus on the causes of the crisis of monarchy in countries around the world, and how these countries have been changed by the disappearance or transformation of this institution.