aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP (02/15/86)
> 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.