Thursday 22 January 2004

Pic of the day: From the treasure trove of the role playing game Daggerfall, saved for just such an occasion. "You've got the wrong white-haired queen!" Sorry your Royal Highness, but some jobs simply don't allow you to keep a low profile.

Ingrid Alexandra

"It's widely expected that the looming birth of Norway's new royal heir, next in line to the throne after Crown Prince Haakon, will lead to a burst of popularity for the royal family in Norway. Whether the new heir will ever actually be monarch, however, remains to be seen." (Aftenposten, the leading conservative newspaper in Norway, January 12th 2004.)

Well, the birth no longer looms. It is safely over, as of yesterday, and today the name of the next heir to the throne has been revealed. Ingrid Alexandra is set to become the first ruling Queen of Norway since the Middle Ages. I am not sure if Norway was ever ruled by a queen, actually, except when in union with other Nordic countries. It sure has never been common. And it is only this generation that our constitution has been amended to allow a female monarch. This is certainly convenient for the Crown Prince and (especially) his wife, who won't need to try again and again until they get a son. It will presumably also necessitate a lot of paperwork since the expression "King" is used so many places not just in the constitution but also in other laws, even though it usually refers to the government.

Yes, Norway is a "constitutional monarchy", where the King has a largely ceremonial and inspirational role. The actual power alloted to him by the constitution is wielded by his government; but the government is in practice elected by the Storting (parliament) which also appoint judges. So the tripartition of power set forth in the constitution does not really exist. This is a bad thing, in my opinion, and I would like to see a much more active monarch if we are to continue the monarchy. Leaving all power in the hands of politicians elected for 4 years encourages a hit-and-run approach to politics. If the fruits of your decisions don't show up within 4 years at most, 2 years on average, someone else will get the credit (or blame) for them. A monarch knows that he and his children will have to live with the consequences. The problem is of course that in an absolute monarchy, there are no consequences: The King will simply say "Off with their heads!" if people protest. So we need a balance. Thus the tripartition of power.

The current King of Norway, Harald, has been very meek. He is a decent person, and does hold an amount of moral authority that politicians are hard pressed to match. But he does not use this to try to wield actual power. He does his job, and he does it very well. It almost seems that he is his job, and I guess this was the ideal at the time. But many people find it refreshing that his son, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, has a stronger profile. He seems to have opinions, and the will to try to ... not shape politics, that is too strong a word again, but color them. Whether this will mean a rejuvenation of the monarchy, or the end of it, remains to be seen.

In fact, it remains to be seen if there even is a Kingdom of Norway by the time Ingrid Alexandra is in line for the throne. Unless some disaster strikes, this is unlikely to be until around 2050. Even if Earth is not swallowed by a black hole made by the Large Hadron Collider of CERN, society is poised for changes that may render the concept of nations as useless as tribes or clans are to us. Indeed, the idea is already ridiculous for those of us who have a broader mind: Should your tax rate, your health care, pension, even the language you write depend on some long dead rulers' conquests in bed and on battlefield? They were just humans like you and me. So they were kings and queens? We are all kings and slaves, born to (some) glory and doomed to (some) failure. One day we may yet learn to pull back our projections, to stop worshiping and blaming others for our collective pride and guilt. But we aren't there yet.

Good luck, little princess. You'll need it.