Monarchical constitutionalism in the context of global transformation: adaptive mechanisms and institutional paradoxes of centralized and decentralized models (case study of Saudi Arabia and the UAE)

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Abstract

This article is devoted to a comparative legal analysis of adaptive mechanisms and institutional paradoxes of centralized and decentralized models of monarchical constitutionalism in the context of global transformation (using the examples of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). The work examines the theoretical and legal context of the relationship between the concepts of constitutionalism and monarchism. Monarchical constitutionalism is justified by the authors as an independent model of normative order, capable of institutional adaptation and legal transformation without destroying its own foundations. In the context of this approach, the study of centralized and decentralized models (using the examples of Saudi Arabia and the UAE) opens up the possibility for understanding alternative forms of constitutional design based on different principles but subordinate to the same objectives – ensuring the stability of power, predictability of legal decisions, and a balance between tradition and the necessity of change. The work employs a range of scientific research methods, including: formal-logical; historical-legal; comparative-legal; statistical; sociological; methods of interpolation and extrapolation; methods for evaluating specific political-legal situations, institutional analysis, comparative approach, and the method of normative hermeneutics. The authors analyze the centralized (Saudi Arabia) and decentralized (UAE) models of monarchical constitutionalism, noting both their similarities and individualizing characteristics. The work explores the prospects for the transformation of monarchical constitutionalism in the aforementioned countries. The authors conclude that monarchical constitutionalism represents a distinct adaptive form of modern constitutional order, possessing real normative productivity, which includes the ability to adequately ensure the coordination of interests in society, minimize conflicts, reproduce social solidarity, and maintain institutional stability without resorting to standards external to this legal culture. The aim of the research is to identify the adaptive mechanisms employed in the specified states to preserve the stability of the political system in the context of global legal transformation, as well as to analyze the institutional paradoxes that inevitably arise when attempting to integrate constitutional forms into the monarchical management paradigm.

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