3. Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has one of the most well-known absolute monarchies in the world. King Abdullah (Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud) took the throne in 2005 after the death of King Fahd, who was his half-brother. In practice, he has ruled as regent since the mid-1990s because of Fahd's poor health in the last years of his life. Since the early 1920s, all Saudi rulers have come from the House of Saud, though the family controlled large parts of the Arabian Peninsula for centuries before that. Saudi royal succession is partially based on seniority, but a committee of Saudi princes can elevate any fellow prince to the head of the line if he is seen as a capable leader. This is distinctly different from Western-style monarchies, which tend to have a set of unbreakable rules about royal succession through seniority.
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