Create a New Forum Admin Login Member Login Contribute to Voyager Search VoyForums Help Desk VoyForums Exchange VoyForums Directory/Categories VoyForums Homepage VoyForums News FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2 ]

Subject: Re: Does anyone visit this site? Author: Rafael [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 15:01:33 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 in the 1980s and other developing countries even today, for example. (The parliament does not exist or is suspended and a president or a Junta rules.) Further, shortly after the French Revolution, when the Directoire was ruling, you could not call France a democracy in the sense we give to this word today. 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 exactly like Athenian democracy. There were various political posts competing (Tribunes, Senators), and the Greek "agora" (a public square were decisions were taken) was missing. Regarding democracies but not republics, consider the so-called constitutional monarchies (today in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Danmark, Japan). In those regimes, the people (or the parliament) - not the monarch - is sovereign. For this reason, they are opposed to absolute monarchies, where the monarch was sovereign "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... in English, "Republic" is sometimes used as an equivalent to "Democracy". But in Spanish, it does not have this more abstract meaning. It only refers to a regime with a president on top. Thus, Jeff Bush's pitfall annoyed the Spanish public opinion, because they thought 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. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]