Which small country is an elective monarchy?

Vatican City is an elective monarchy.

Its sovereign is the pope, who is elected by the College of Cardinals rather than inheriting the position through a royal family. The pope is also Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. When a pope dies or resigns, the papal office becomes vacant, and cardinals gather in a conclave to choose a successor.

The system is more precisely described as a theocratic absolute elective monarchy. The pope holds supreme legislative, executive, and judicial authority over Vatican City, although commissions, governors, and other officials carry out much of the practical administration in his name. This makes Vatican City one of the world’s rare non-hereditary monarchies.

A common mix-up is treating the Vatican City State and the Holy See as identical. Vatican City was created by the Lateran Pacts in 1929 as the territorial state, while the Holy See is the central governing authority of the Catholic Church and the entity that conducts diplomatic relations. The pope’s election is a religious process, but it also determines the state’s sovereign.