The article is devoted to the research of the specifics of the modern Arab monarchies form of government. The author expounds the essence of certain contradictory tendencies of their functioning and evolution. The first among them is the conflict between an objective demand of all the Middle East monarchies (absolute and limited) to meet the requirements of political, technical, economic and social development within the process of globalization and at the same time the persistent attempts of governments to preserve medieval feudal and clerical laws and orders. The second contradictory trend is the imposition of the constitution adoption by the monarch Arab states without general public participation in this process as well as the formulation of the principles of absolutism in unlimited monarchies at the legislative level. The third trend demonstrates the limited monarchies governments’ perseverance to restore the absolutism. The article provides the peculiar analysis of the defining principles of the absolute and limited monarchy forms of government. The author determined objective reasons of the limited monarchies’ intent to preserve their absolute and restoration policy, such as the weakness of community, the absence of democratic traditions, the strengthening of Islam and its disintegration into numerous movements, the threat of radicalism, specific differences in political structure, traditionalism, governmental authoritarianism, advisory nature of governments and parliaments, etc

Keywords: Arab East, absolute monarchy, limited monarchy, form of government, constitution, Islam, Shariah