Editing Monarchy of Belgium (section)

=== Constitutional, political, and historical consequences ===
The Belgian monarchy was from the beginning a constitutional monarchy, patterned after that of the United Kingdom.<ref name=arango61>{{cite book| first=Ramon| last=Arango| title=Leopold III and the Belgian Royal Question| publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press| location=Baltimore| year=1961| page=9| isbn=9780801800405|url-access=subscription | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLzkugAACAAJ&q=Leopold+III+and+the+Belgian+Royal+Question}}</ref> Raymond Fusilier wrote the Belgian regime of 1830 was also inspired by the French Constitution of the [[Kingdom of France (1791–1792)]], the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] of 1776, and the old political traditions of both Walloon and Flemish provinces.<ref>''Les monarchies parlementaires en Europe'', Editions ouvrières, Paris, 1960, p. 350</ref> "It should be observed that all monarchies have suffered periods of change as a result of which the power of the sovereign was reduced, but for the most part those periods occurred before the development of the system of constitutional monarchy and were steps leading to its establishment."<ref name=arango61/> The characteristic evidence of this is in Great Britain where there was an evolution from the time when kings ruled through the agency of ministers to that time when ministers began to govern through the instrumentality of the [[British crown|Crown]].

Unlike the British constitutional system, in Belgium "the monarchy underwent a belated evolution" which came "after the establishment of the constitutional monarchical system"<ref>Arango, p. 12.</ref> because, in 1830–1831, an independent state, parliamentary system and monarchy were established simultaneously. Hans Daalder, professor of political science at the [[Rijksuniversiteit Leiden]] wrote: "Did such simultaneous developments not result in a possible failure to lay down the limits of the royal prerogatives with some precision—which implied that the view of the King as the Keeper of the Nation, with rights and duties of its own, retained legitimacy?"<ref>Hans Daalder, The monarchy in a parliamentary system, in ''Res Publica, Tijdschrift voor Politologie, Revue de Science Politique'', Belgian Journal of Political Science, number 1, 1991, pp. 70–81, p. 74.</ref>

For Raymond Fusilier, the Belgian monarchy had to be placed—at least in the beginning—between the regimes where the king rules and those in which the king does not rule but only [[reign]]s. The Belgian monarchy is closer to the principle "the King does not rule",<ref>Raymond Fusilier, ''Les monarchies parlementaires – étude sur les systèmes de gouvernement en Suède, Norvège, Luxembourg, Belgique, Pays-bas, Danemark'', Editions ouvrières, Paris, 1960, pp. 419–420.</ref> but the Belgian kings were not only "at the head of the dignified part of the Constitution".<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4351/4351-h/4351-h.htm Bagehot, The English Constitution]</ref> The Belgian monarchy is not merely symbolic, because it participates in directing affairs of state insofar as the King's will coincides with that of the ministers, who alone bear responsibility for the policy of government.<ref>R.Fusilier, pp. 419–420. French ''Elle n'est pas purement symbolique, car elle participe à la direction des affaires de l'Etat dans la mesure où sa volonté coïncide avec la volonté des ministres, lesquels seuls assument la responsabilité de la politique du gouvenement.''</ref> For [[Francis Delpérée]], to reign does not only mean to preside over ceremonies but also to take a part in the running of the State.<ref>French ''Le Roi règne. Pendant plus d'un siècle et demi (...) on ne s'est guère interrogé sur cette maxime. Ou bien on a cherché à lui donner un sens réducteur. Le Roi préside les [[Te Deum]] et les cérémonies protocolaires (...) Régner ne signifie pas suivre d'un oeil distrait les occupations du gouvernement (...) C'est contribuer (...) au fonctionnement harmonieux de l'Etat'', in ''[[La Libre Belgique]]'' (April 1990) quoted by ''Les faces cachées de la monarchie belge'', Contradictions, number 65–66, 1991, p. 27. {{ISBN|2-87090-010-4}}</ref> The Belgian historian [[Jean Stengers]] wrote that "some foreigners believe the monarchy is indispensable to national unity. That is very naive. He is only a piece on the chessboard, but a piece which matters".<ref>French ''Certains étrangers croient – ils le disent souvent – que le maintien de l'unité belge tient à la personne du Roi. Cela est d'une grande naïveté. Il n'est qu'une pièce sur l'échiquier. Mais, sur l'échiquier, le Roi est une pièce qui compte.'', Jean Stengers, ''L'action du roi en Belgique depuis 1831'', Duculot, Gembloux, 1992, p. 312. {{ISBN|2-8011-1026-4}}</ref>