Editing Absolute monarchy (section)

=== Saudi Arabia ===
{{Main|Politics of Saudi Arabia}}[[Saudi Arabia]] is an absolute monarchy, and according to the [[Basic Law of Saudi Arabia]] adopted by Royal Decree in 1992, the King must comply with [[Sharia]] (Islamic law) and the [[Quran]].<ref name=Cavendish78>{{cite book |title=World and Its Peoples: the Arabian Peninsula |last=Cavendish |first=Marshall |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7614-7571-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/worlditspeoplesm0000unse/page/78 78] |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |url=https://archive.org/details/worlditspeoplesm0000unse/page/78 }}</ref> The Quran and the body of the [[Sunnah]] (traditions of the Islamic [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|prophet]], [[Muhammad]]) are declared to be the Kingdom's Constitution, but no written modern constitution has ever been promulgated for Saudi Arabia, which remains the only Arab nation where no national elections have ever taken place since its founding.<ref name= Gerhard>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of world constitutions, Volume 1 |last=Robbers |first=Gerhard |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8160-6078-8 |page=791|publisher=Facts On File }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1 November 2011 |title=Qatar elections to be held in 2013 - Emir |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15537725 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106200756/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15537725 |archive-date=2012-01-06 |access-date=27 February 2021 |work=BBC News}}</ref> No political parties or national elections are permitted.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf |title=The Economist Democracy Index 2010 |author=The Economist Intelligence Unit |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=6 June 2011 |archive-date=6 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180606141853/http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Cavendish78/> The Saudi government is the world's most authoritarian regime in 2023 measured by the electoral democracy score of the [[V-Dem Democracy indices]].<ref name="vdem_dataset">Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, Nazifa Alizada, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Garry Hindle, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. "V-Dem [Country–Year/Country–Date] Dataset v11.1" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds21 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807060439/https://www.v-dem.net/data/dataset-archive/ |date=2023-08-07 }}.</ref>