Challenge: Elective Monarchy

What would it take to have a nation with a form of popularly elected monarchy, in which the monarch is elected by the people as a whole, but from among the descendants of the current monarch? It sounds like something different to OTL elective monarchies, but I could see it working as well as them. Not sure how something like this would develop though...
 
It's not at all an uncommon idea. The Germanic and Celtic traditions would easily support it - royal blood being important, but the actual raising to office required acclamation by 'the people'.

Of course, you'd have to stop ancient ideals of agonal society from seeping in and preventthe electoral process from being monopolised by the upper crust. Very early POD, I think.
 
Poland-Lithuania was an elective monarchy, although only the nobles could vote. OTOH, they made up ~15% of the population.
 
Maybe Poland-Lithuania (as Max said, all the nobles could vote) extends the election to all of the upper class.. and then the PLC survives longer (no partitions, etc) and as a middle class develops and all classes become more educated, the right to vote is spread to majority of the nation's population.
 
Maybe Poland-Lithuania (as Max said, all the nobles could vote) extends the election to all of the upper class.. and then the PLC survives longer (no partitions, etc) and as a middle class develops and all classes become more educated, the right to vote is spread to majority of the nation's population.

Wasn't that kind of the idea of their last Constitution, in the years before their dismemberment?
 
I'd say keep around one of the Germanic or Celtic traditions as Carlton said, then somewhere down the line inspire some sort of move towards universal sufferage as in OTL, which would include the monarch as well as Parliament.
 
Tribes of all sorts would do this, electing leaders from the noble blood.

What you would need, IMO, is a democracy where nobles exist and they're popular enough that they frequently run for office, until it reaches the point that the system could be described as an Elective Monarchy.
 
Wasn't that kind of the idea of their last Constitution, in the years before their dismemberment?

I'm not sure. If that's true, then the POD could being them not being dismembered.


And to the Germanic king idea: both the Carolingians and Ottonians were elective monarchies. Maybe if the Carolingians continue in France, the tradition will be to elect each monarch and not have it hereditary. I don't know how long it would be feasible for the Carolingians to survive (certainly not to the present day) but if it is long enough maybe the tradition will stick.
 
Actually, the Capetians were also elected, until Philippes II.

What you need is a way to keep the nobles more powerfull. But that means you'll never get a powerfull state.
 
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