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From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: British Institutions of Government:
Message-ID: <7700002@ccvaxa>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 21:03:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.7700002
Posted: Fri Feb 14 21:03:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 04:42:06 EST
References: <677@sftig.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:sftig.UUCP:677:ccvaxa:7700002:000:1177
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew    Feb 14 20:03:00 1986


>	Frank Adams has repeatedly asserted the claim that England's
>"constitutional monarchy" is a democracy. To answer this I quote someone who
>has lived under British Rule throughout his life. In his book (published by
>Mercier Press) "An End to Silence", Reverend Desmond Wilson states:
>...

If I believed Reverend Wilson I would be unsure that I had ever lived in a 
democracy. I'm Canadian. The Queen is Canada's sovereign, represented by
the Governor-General. Canada has a Senate modeled after the House of Lords
- but our Senate isn't even hereditary, it consists mainly of people 
appointed by the last government.

And yet people go to the polls, and even manage to defeat the Liberal party
at times.

There are some psychological advantages to a democracy ruled by a 
constitutional monarch. The monarch gives the masses who need a god-figure
somebody to worship who doesn't have any real political power. 
Q: would Richard Nixon have survived Watergate if he'd been a more
charismatic figure? Perhaps - to a frighteningly large number of Americans
the President can do no wrong. The monarch siphons off this element, and
slightly improves the rationality of politics.