The Commonwealth in the Twenty-First Century
Author | Bob Morris,Norman Bonney |
Published date | 01 April 2012 |
Date | 01 April 2012 |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-9066.2012.00096.x |
the Commonwealth, particularly concerning the 15
independent states in addition to the UK that retain the
monarch as head of state – the realms, as they are called
(see Table 1). The other states of the Commonwealth
are mostly presidential republics, but some – such as
Brunei and Tonga – have monarchs of their own. The
realms include large, populous former ‘dominions’ that
have been independent for more than a century(such as
Canada and Australia), large and less populous countries
such as Papua New Guinea that obtained independence
in 1975, and numerous small island former colony states
in the Pacific and Caribbean.
Any changes to the rules of succession to common
monarchy, which are primarily determined by UK law,
have as a matter of practice to be agreed by all the other
The Commonwealth in the
Twenty-rst Century
As the celebrations of the Queen’s Jubilee commence
in 2012 it is worth noting the observations of
Patrick Gordon Walker at the time of the Queen’s
coronation in 1953. Gordon Walker was then a rising
Labour Party MP who was later defeated in the 1964 gen-
eral election campaign in the West Midlands Smethwick
constituency over the issue of immigration to the UK from
some Commonwealth countries. He wrote a perceptive
piece in a special edition of the Picture Post, arguing that
the coronation was an exaggeratedly British celebration
that gave insufficient representation and recognition in
the congregation to the diverse realms and peoples of the
monarch, and that the monarchy would face major chal-
lenges in the future in adjusting to the Commonwealth as
the successor organisation to the former British Empire.
Gordon Walker suggested that in future, the Queen’s
staff should reflect the Commonwealth in its composi-
tion and that she should spend much more time resident
in the other countries – then a very much smaller num-
ber than now. ‘The great challenge of the future will be
for Great Britain to adjust to being one among equals
in the Commonwealth and a lesser power compared
to the other members. The great task of statesmanship
during the Queen’s reign will be to help adjust to these
changes’, he wrote.
There are good grounds for arguing that this transition
has been successfully achieved. The Queen’s staff may
not be as polyglot as Gordon Walker envisaged, but the
diverse Secretariat of the Commonwealth has developed
to coordinate and promote Commonwealth values and
objectives; it also reflects, in its composition, the back-
ground of the peoples that it serves. The monarch did
not become resident as Gordon Walker envisaged but
she has over the years been an energetic visitor, and
attending the biennial conferences has kept her in touch
with their affairs. As a remarkable sign of the wholly
voluntary institution’s health, two countries that were
never parts of the British Empire – Mozambique and
Rwanda – have joined the Commonwealth.
Monarch, Realms and Commonwealth
There are important, not frequently appreci-
ated, constitutional distinctions among members of
The Commonwealth’s role and function has changed dramatically over the last sixty years. Some critics doubt
the organisation’s contemporary relevance, but the Commonwealth’s future will be secure as long as members
continue to find it useful, write Norman Bonney and Bob Morris.
Two countries
that were never
parts of the
British Empire
– Mozambique
and Rwanda –
have joined the
Commonwealth
in recent years
TABLE 1 The realms of the monarch and their populations, 2011
Realm Population
Antigua and Barbuda 88,000
Australia 22,000,000
Bahamas 313,000
Barbados 287,000
Belize 321,000
Canada 34,000,000
Grenada 108,000
Jamaica 2,900,000
New Zealand 4,300,000
Papua New Guinea 6,200,000
Solomon Islands 572,000
St Christopher and Nevis 43,000
St Lucia 162,000
St Vincent and the Grenadines 104,000
Tuvalu 11,000
United Kingdom 63,000,000
Total 134,000,000
Source: Bonney and Morris, 2012.
26 Political Insight
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