Bhutan’s king voluntarily gave up absolute power and turned his kingdom into a democracy — but many of his people begged him not to, trusting the monarchy more than the politicians who would replace it

Bhutan’s king voluntarily gave up absolute power and turned his kingdom into a democracy — but many of his people begged him not to, trusting the monarchy more than the politicians who would replace it

In 2008, the ruler of a Himalayan kingdom of roughly 600,000 people did something almost no monarch has done willingly. Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan’s fourth king, arranged his own demotion, replaced absolute rule with a parliamentary democracy, and stepped aside for his son. The unusual part is not the reform itself. It is that a large share of his subjects did not want it, and said so plainly. The transition is often described as one of the …