"She does get involved "politically" when she meets heads of state and other royalty." No she doesn't. She acts as an ambassador for UK plc. She is not involved in any discussions over issues as such. The elected govt does that. She has residual political powers in the UK which are basically to make sure a govt is in place. After an election if there is a hung parliament the leader of the largest party would initially try to form a govt. If they are unable to form a majority and perhaps don't want to run a minority govt - then the monarch will approach someone else and ask them to try and form a govt. That is her residual role. The leading UK politicians collectively acknowledge that their responsibility is to try to ensure that she is never put in that position. It is an archaic system but kind of works despite that. The other supposed royal powers (for eg declaring war etc) are actually wielded by the PM of the day. She is more a symbolic Head of State than an actual political Head of State such as the US has.