World History

The British monarchy could go either way. I notice here in Australia (where the Queen is our largely ceremonial head of state, although all her powers and duties are effectively exercised through her representative -known as the Governor General -who is actually appointed by our Prime Minister) that talk about becoming a Republic always revolves around doing it after Queen Elizabeth II dies. We did have a referendum on whether we should become a Republic 13 years ago but our Bushbot PM at the time effectively scuppered it by rigging the referendum question so it would deliberately fail. I think many of the countries that have Queen Elizabeth as a head of state will start addressing the question of becoming a Republic more seriously after she has passed away

As for the actual British monarchy itself, it depends on how it adapts to change. I suspect that Charles will probably be an uninspiring monarch if he succeeds his mother but I could proved wrong -it's interesting to note that everyone had the same low expectations of King Edward VII, whom succeeded Queen Victoria (who also had an exceptionally long reign and thereby made her son wait a long time) and he proved to be quite a surprise -although he only reigned for a short time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII
If/when William takes over the throne, I think he could revive its fortunes at least for the short term. He's young, popular and has some of the charm of his mother and I think his will be a long reign. What happens after that -who knows?

As for monarchy worldwide being extinct by the end of the 21st century, I'm not yet prepared to make that call. I think in some countries it may collapse. In Thailand, for instance, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (the world's longest serving head of state) is revered and beloved by his subjects but his son is apparently unpopular and lacks his father's common touch. Combined with that, the prestige of the royal family there has been undermined somewhat in recent years by the role they played in undermining and overthrowing the government of Thaksin Shinawatra. So that's one country where I think the monarchy may be in danger in the long term. Also dramatic circumstances can end a monarchy pretty quickly (see for example Nepal, where much of the royal family -including the popular King at the time- were extinguished when the Crown Prince went on a murderous rampage with a gun at a family dinner back in 2001. The new King who took over proved incompetent and effectively ran the monarchy into the ground, resulting in its abolition just seven to eight years later)

Also monarchs in the Middle East may succumb to revolutions/pro-democracy movements/Islamic fundamentalist takeovers and whatever else. I doubt many of them will survive till the end of this century, especially since many of them are burying their heads in the sand in response to demands for political reforms and freedoms -which, judging by history, always seems to end badly for them

Yet many of the monarchies in Europe remain very popular with their subjects -particularly in Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Denmark and Noway where the royal families have shown a willingness to adapt with the time and adopt a more common touch in relation to their subjects. Similarly monarchs in countries like Brunei and Bhutan also command a high degree of reverence from their subjects. This may change over coming decades but it certainly should give pause for thought when trying to predict the future of monarchies