Albania: Better Off As a Republic or a Monarchy? The UK, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, and Monaco. All these states share three common traits: they are all part of Europe, all economically developed, and all monarchies. The governmental system of these countries presents an interesting contrast to the current state of Albania's ruling situation. A monarchy is typically defined as the type of government in which all the power is assigned to one or two monarchs, who can alter laws as they so desire. Over the decades, this definition has been altered, with modern-day monarchies in Europe using monarchs as mere figureheads who exercise little or no political power. The monarchies in Europe are currently classified as constitutional monarchies, which means the monarch's power is limited to what is defined by the constitution and where the legislative power lies with an elected government. Traditionally, the sovereign head leads for life or until abdication, and then an heir takes over the ruling duties. One of the benefits of having a pre-selected individual to lead, someone who has been prepared and trained on how to direct a government, is that this does not leave the state in the hands of a few passionate citizens, which could potentially be detrimental to the development of the state. While there have been examples of inept monarchs throughout history, there have been many kings and queens in different European states who were great leaders and greatly advanced their respective countries. A republic state, on the other hand, is based on democracy, on citizens being able to freely cast their vote on whom they want to lead their country. This leading political head then distributes some of the power among various institutions and is replaced after a period of time during future elections. Even though electing political leaders gives people more freedom of choice, it also encourages political tension, which lea