Despite the common perception that monarchy is a thing of the past, and all remaining kings and assorted other nobility mere figureheads, there's a fairly large number of states still governed through monarchy, and in a surprising number of them, the monarch's power is still legally or effectively very close to absolute.
Here's a short list of countries which either have no written constitution, do not provide for a legislature in their constitutions, or where the ruler retains enough power over the legislature that he's far from a figurehead:
There's also a somewhat larger number of true constitutional monarchies, such as:
The Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Denmark
Spain
Luxembourg
Possibly Andorra, depending on one's definition
Lesotho
Japan
Nepal
Thailand
Malaysia
theoretically, Cambodia
Taken altogether, that's a fairly substantial portion of the world's population, land area, and resources.
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me with additions or corrections to these lists.