'A king can open up the prime ministership to competition but still remain the king.'Д«ut kings can't count on the majesty of their office to keep all challenges at bay indefinitely. 'For a president, introducing reforms means opening up the presidency to competition,' says the Carnegie Endowment's Ottaway. The kings of Jordan and Morocco have promised elections, changed prime ministers or shaken up their Cabinets in order to show their responsiveness вЂ“ while managing to keep their own authority intact. 'The whole idea of having a republic and not a monarchy is you have a president who is there for two terms, and then you have elections,' says Esfandiari.Д«ecause of their near-total monopoly on power, monarchs have actually enjoyed greater flexibility than the autocrats, in certain ways, in responding to protesters' demands. The fact that autocrats were turning presidencies and other high-ranking government posts into a family business - and looting treasuries and large chunks of the private economy in the process - helped fuel the opposition in those countries. In Syria, President Bashar Assad did, in fact, succeed his father. Gadhafi and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appeared to be grooming their sons to succeed them. 'In what are nominally republics, there was a lot of resentment from seeing sons taking power.'

'People in a monarchy expect the son to take over power,' says el-Husseini, the Texas A&M professor. Some autocrats seemed to be preparing their sons to take over, and that only served to make the rulers even more unpopular. King Abdullah said women will be able to run and cast votes in municipal elections in 2015. Saudi Arabia: The government announced $130 billion in additional spending on jobs and homes. Morocco: Following protests, King Mohammed VI proposed constitutional reforms that were overwhelmingly approved in July. Next year, parliament will be able to choose a prime minister, but King Abdullah II will retain veto power over the pick. Jordan: Dozens of amendments have been made to the constitution.

Bahrain: King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa forcibly put down protests calling for him to hand over many powers to parliament.

King of arabia