THE BRITISH MONARCHY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY: PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN, 2001–2022

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the British monarchy and national identity between 2001 and 2022, a period in which the institution remained constitutionally stable while the society around it changed in significant political, social, cultural, and generational ways. It argues that public attitudes during this period are best understood not as a single measure of popularity but as a decoupling of two things usually assumed to move together: symbolic attachment to the monarchy and active support for it as an institution. Drawing on an original questionnaire of 141 respondents, the study finds that symbolic recognition of the monarchy remained high while institutional commitment was markedly weaker. A large majority of respondents, 77.3 percent, saw the monarchy as a representation of British national identity, and 70.2 percent believed royal traditions strengthened national unity. Yet only 48.2 percent supported the institution's continuation, and only 24.8 percent expressed high trust in it. This gap of roughly twenty-nine points between symbolic representation and active support is the central finding of the study. It was widest among younger respondents, 42.6 percent of whom regarded the monarchy as less relevant to their generation. The article situates this pattern against the historical literature and the accession of King Charles III in 2022, and concludes that the monarchy's future position depends less on whether it is recognised as a national symbol, which it still is, than on whether that symbolic attachment can be converted into institutional support, which the generational evidence suggests is weakening. The study's sample is a self-selected convenience sample and its findings are therefore indicative rather than representative; its value lies in identifying a structure of attitudes that larger representative studies can test.