| Subject: Re: Does anyone visit this site? |
Author:
Rafael
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Date Posted: 14:56:26 04/30/03 Wed
In reply to:
Katherine
's message, "Does anyone visit this site?" on 14:30:16 12/01/02 Sun
Well... reg. republics but not democracies:
There are many examples in recent history. Consider Argentina and other developing countries, for example. After the French Revolution, you could not call France a democracy as we know it today while being ruled by the Directoire.
Anyway, the term Republic comes from Rome, and the term Democracy comes from Athens, don't they?
As a matter of a fact, the ancient Roman Republic did not work not exactly like Athenian democracy. There were various political posts (Tribunes, Senate) competing, and the Greek "agora" (a public square were decisions were taken) was missing.
Regarding democracies but not republics, see the so-called constitutional monarchies (today Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Danmark, Japan). In them, it is the people (or the parliament) who is sovereign. For this reason, they are opposed to absolute monarchies, where the monarch was justified "by God's will".
Funnily enough, when Bush's brother came to Spain last month, he said in a speech he was "glad to visit the Republic of Spain". Well... "Republic" may be a more general term in English, sometimes used as an equivalent to "Democracy". Nevertheless, Jeff Bush's pitfall annoyed the Spanish public opinion.
I hope I have helped you to get a little bit further.
>I was wondering if anyone who knows anything about
>history could tell me if there are or were any nations
>that were democracies but not republics or republics
>but not democracies?
>
>thanks.
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