This paper discusses the main characteristics of elective monarchy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth while comparing and contrasting it with other early modern European examples. No other early... Show moreThis paper discusses the main characteristics of elective monarchy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth while comparing and contrasting it with other early modern European examples. No other early modern polity organized elections on the scale of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. More people, more time, and more explicit regulations were involved in its elections than in those of any other country. Seen in this light, the Commonwealth may appear as a north-eastern European sonderweg. Yet the Polish-Lithuanian version of elective monarchy was not a unique invention, but rather a particularly strong manifestation of republican and constitutionalist trends that also affected many other parts of late medieval and early modern Europe. The most striking elements that characterized it—non-dynastic succession and conditional rulership—could also be found elsewhere, albeit in weaker versions: Transylvania and Hungary; Bohemia, Sweden, and Denmark. But even if the traits of the Polish-Lithuanian elective system, taken separately, differed from the rest of Europe more by degree than essence, there is no question that the combination of all its traits put together resulted in a remarkable package that cannot be found elsewhere as such. Show less
