[WikiEN-l] Re: Queen Elizabeth II

Thu Mar 10 01:04:52 UTC 2005

actionforum at comcast.net wrote:
> -------------- Original message --------------
> 
>> csherlock at ljh.com.au wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> The controversy has come about because Skyring insists that our
>>> head of state is not the monarchy, therefore we fall inside the
>>> definition of what is a republic. This is ORIGINAL RESEARCH. I
>>> have read some of his sources, and none of them state what he
>>> thinks they say.
>> 
>> Before something can be Original research it must first be
>> research. Please learn the difference between research and wishful
>> thinking.
> 
> 
> It certainly is wishful thinking.  If only everyone could have a head
> of state that  did as little as the queen does, what a wonderful
> world this would be.
> 
> Now if only the debate could be conducted in American english, the
> debate becomes more clear.  The issue all along has been not whether
> Austrailia is a republic, but whether it is a democracy.   In
> American english, no it is not a democracy, it has a constitutionally
> limited form a government, a republic.  Therefore, since Austailia is
> not a democracy, when we translate back to Austrailian english,
> Austrailia is not a republic.  The queen has been irrelevant to the
> whole issue, just as she is to nearly anything in Austrailia.
> 
> Now if only, the Austrailian's had used the perfectly good word
> "democracy", the debate could have been conducted in their english.
> Somehow, despite "republics" duplication of the meaning of
> "democracy" in their language, it carries so kind of emotional
> baggage that does not allow it to be viewed objectively, perhaps
> because of some meaning bleed, from the other form of english.
> 
> -- Silverback

Sorry... I'm totally confused. We have a constitution, we elect our 
government (the populace elects them), in fact we MUST elect our 
government as this is compulsory and we have equality before the law and 
due process under the rule of law! So in what way are we *not* a democracy?

Is there some weird American definition of democracy I'm not aware of? 
May I suggest looking at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy#.22Democracy.22_versus_.22republic.22 
and if necessary update it?

TBSDY