A Hereditary and Constitutional System
As a hereditary constitutional monarchy system, the role and operation of Belgium's monarchy is governed by the Constitution. The royal office of King is designated solely for a descendent of the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I.
Since he is bound by the Constitution (above all other ideological and religious considerations, political opinions and debates and economic interests) the King acts as an arbiter and guardian of Belgium's unity and independence. Belgium's monarchs are inaugurated without the blessing of the Catholic Church in a purely civil swearing-in ceremony. These words (above all other ideological and religious considerations, political opinions and debates and economic interests) are not written in the Belgian constitution: nevertheless, they conform with the spirit of this Constitution. There have been occurrences, however, of Belgian monarchs not always respecting this spirit.
Read more about this topic: Monarchy Of Belgium
Famous quotes containing the words hereditary and/or system:
“We bring [to government] no hereditary status or gift of infallibility and none follows us from this place.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)