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Hey all.
So I want to discuss modern day republics with you all. I have decided to put this in Europe because I will be using Europe, and western nations in general, as examples. It also seemed fitting since the Europeans were the ones who invented the notion of republic. But we won't delve in history here.
Today, we can observe 4 cases of republics through the western world, 5 if we count the extinct ones and 6 if we count worldwide.
1. Full Presidential Republic -> This is indeed nowhere to be found in europe(ok, maybe Belarus). It is in fact what the USA has. A full presidential republic is a republic where the President is the head of state and the head of government, giving him responsabilities over external affairs, internal affairs, military and the executive branch in general. Worldwide, it is found in South America (all of south america I think is full pres republic), part of africa and asia.
2. Semi-presidential republics -> This form of government has been first made by the French. It inherits a lot of things from the Roman Republic of old.. including the idea that it separates the notions of head of state and head of government in much the same way the 2 consuls of ancient Rome had 2 perogatives-> 1 had external affairs, and the other, internal affairs. The general model of the semi-pres republic is that the president, who is elected by direct vote by the people, handles the military and the foreign relations, while the PM, who is elected by the majority in Parliament (thus, is of the same party affiliation as the parliament majority or coalition) handles the internal affairs. This provides another layer of checks and balanced even within the executive branch of sorts. The relationship between the PM and the Pres is meant to hold each other to their duties, especially since the Pres is the one whom the people "should" love the most because they elected him.. while they did not elect the PM themselves directly. Other notable semi-pres republics are: Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and some countries in Africa and Asia.
3. Parliamentary republics. In these cases, the people have very little direct input over their highest offices. In full-pres repubs, they elect the head of government +head of state as the president... in semi-pres, they elect the head of state directly... and over here... they elect just the parliament. The parliament then does what it does and elects the Prime Minister and the President (it really varies) with MOST of the power being given to the PM and the President often having a very... minimal role. Then again, it varies. 2 awesome examples are Germany and Italy, but there are quite a few worldwide. These republics need a good voting system for the parliamentary elections and thus, most (MUST) employ either proportional voting or mixed member proportional to satisfy a good level of democratic input into the process. The public elects the majority in parliament which in turns elects the PM and the president. When the majority in parliament changes, usually, you get a new PM (though not always a new president).
4. This is the UK (and Canada... and I think Aussie land too). I have it a special place because it is a special country. All other republics in the world get their right to exist and function as republics from... the people. The people are sovereign. The UK is a special child because it gets its right to exist from... the crown. Not the people. This is mostly because the UK has a Constitution that is almost 800 years old and dates back to a time when the king of England was forced by the nobles to give away some of his rights in order to keep his head. Thus, forming the first "parliament". It is also why the UK has "the house of lords" and the "house of commons (or commoners)" and not a senate + chamber of deputies like most other countries have to represent their upper houses and lower houses of parliament. But I digress.
This is because these countries are living under a Constitutional Monarchy who allows the existence of a republic in the UK and Canada. Why is the crown so strong? Because it has God on its side. I mean it... look it up in the Constitution. Overall this doesn't mean anything but I just wanted to express this absurdity in the modern world.
Now, I promised you that 5 is the extinct one.
5. Socialist republics. Ah... now americans will scream:But European countries are socialist countries! dooh; No my dear across-the-pond friend, we are not socialists. Except for Portugal, who has a hint of socialism in its laws and Constitution, the rest of us are heavily capitalist and democratic republics. Socialist republics are quite and aberration that could have only existed under the absurd system of communism and under the iron curtain. Socialism is a terrible, terrible system which focuses on dehumanization and totalitarianism in order to make a few very privileged people very happy, while making the rest sheep. It is extinct now, and thank God for that, because of its own inherent stupidity. Basically, half of Europe was forced to live under this absurd system because the allies decided to take a dump on half of Europe after the war ended and because they signed a deal with the devil in 1940 and make the devil very happy. I will go into more details if you want, but just know ,that no socialist country exist in Europe... and in the world we have shining examples like N. Korea, Cuba, Bangladesh, Egypt(well, who knows now with the new guy) and Libya and a few more).
And now for number 6: the other living stupid form of republic.
6. Islamic republic. This is a bad joke on the face of the world really since calling anything islamic and then put the word: "republic" next to it is worthy of having its own sit-com. This is the same as putting any religion and then the word republic next to it. Christian republic, buddhist republic, etc. It is all equally stupid really. It is however not as stupid as a socialist republic but it is equally as tragic as its existence is validated in the world. Islamic republics exist in almost all the islamic world and unfortunately they don't seem to be lighting up. Until the "arab spring" started up, there were 4 nations in the islamic world who were not islamic republics:
a) Egypt
b) Syria
c) Libya
d) Saudi Arabia -> this one being one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world. the other 3... their fate is uncertain.
Ok. So this is a quick your of the types of republics out there in the world. The first 3 are quite important. However, it is equally important to note that each republic of each kind has its own uniqueness and its own differences. Saying that all parliamentary republics are the same is quite a fallacy and should only be done in generalizing the notion for academic purposes... same for all the rest. Cheers.
So I want to discuss modern day republics with you all. I have decided to put this in Europe because I will be using Europe, and western nations in general, as examples. It also seemed fitting since the Europeans were the ones who invented the notion of republic. But we won't delve in history here.
Today, we can observe 4 cases of republics through the western world, 5 if we count the extinct ones and 6 if we count worldwide.
1. Full Presidential Republic -> This is indeed nowhere to be found in europe(ok, maybe Belarus). It is in fact what the USA has. A full presidential republic is a republic where the President is the head of state and the head of government, giving him responsabilities over external affairs, internal affairs, military and the executive branch in general. Worldwide, it is found in South America (all of south america I think is full pres republic), part of africa and asia.
2. Semi-presidential republics -> This form of government has been first made by the French. It inherits a lot of things from the Roman Republic of old.. including the idea that it separates the notions of head of state and head of government in much the same way the 2 consuls of ancient Rome had 2 perogatives-> 1 had external affairs, and the other, internal affairs. The general model of the semi-pres republic is that the president, who is elected by direct vote by the people, handles the military and the foreign relations, while the PM, who is elected by the majority in Parliament (thus, is of the same party affiliation as the parliament majority or coalition) handles the internal affairs. This provides another layer of checks and balanced even within the executive branch of sorts. The relationship between the PM and the Pres is meant to hold each other to their duties, especially since the Pres is the one whom the people "should" love the most because they elected him.. while they did not elect the PM themselves directly. Other notable semi-pres republics are: Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and some countries in Africa and Asia.
3. Parliamentary republics. In these cases, the people have very little direct input over their highest offices. In full-pres repubs, they elect the head of government +head of state as the president... in semi-pres, they elect the head of state directly... and over here... they elect just the parliament. The parliament then does what it does and elects the Prime Minister and the President (it really varies) with MOST of the power being given to the PM and the President often having a very... minimal role. Then again, it varies. 2 awesome examples are Germany and Italy, but there are quite a few worldwide. These republics need a good voting system for the parliamentary elections and thus, most (MUST) employ either proportional voting or mixed member proportional to satisfy a good level of democratic input into the process. The public elects the majority in parliament which in turns elects the PM and the president. When the majority in parliament changes, usually, you get a new PM (though not always a new president).
4. This is the UK (and Canada... and I think Aussie land too). I have it a special place because it is a special country. All other republics in the world get their right to exist and function as republics from... the people. The people are sovereign. The UK is a special child because it gets its right to exist from... the crown. Not the people. This is mostly because the UK has a Constitution that is almost 800 years old and dates back to a time when the king of England was forced by the nobles to give away some of his rights in order to keep his head. Thus, forming the first "parliament". It is also why the UK has "the house of lords" and the "house of commons (or commoners)" and not a senate + chamber of deputies like most other countries have to represent their upper houses and lower houses of parliament. But I digress.
This is because these countries are living under a Constitutional Monarchy who allows the existence of a republic in the UK and Canada. Why is the crown so strong? Because it has God on its side. I mean it... look it up in the Constitution. Overall this doesn't mean anything but I just wanted to express this absurdity in the modern world.
Now, I promised you that 5 is the extinct one.
5. Socialist republics. Ah... now americans will scream:But European countries are socialist countries! dooh; No my dear across-the-pond friend, we are not socialists. Except for Portugal, who has a hint of socialism in its laws and Constitution, the rest of us are heavily capitalist and democratic republics. Socialist republics are quite and aberration that could have only existed under the absurd system of communism and under the iron curtain. Socialism is a terrible, terrible system which focuses on dehumanization and totalitarianism in order to make a few very privileged people very happy, while making the rest sheep. It is extinct now, and thank God for that, because of its own inherent stupidity. Basically, half of Europe was forced to live under this absurd system because the allies decided to take a dump on half of Europe after the war ended and because they signed a deal with the devil in 1940 and make the devil very happy. I will go into more details if you want, but just know ,that no socialist country exist in Europe... and in the world we have shining examples like N. Korea, Cuba, Bangladesh, Egypt(well, who knows now with the new guy) and Libya and a few more).
And now for number 6: the other living stupid form of republic.
6. Islamic republic. This is a bad joke on the face of the world really since calling anything islamic and then put the word: "republic" next to it is worthy of having its own sit-com. This is the same as putting any religion and then the word republic next to it. Christian republic, buddhist republic, etc. It is all equally stupid really. It is however not as stupid as a socialist republic but it is equally as tragic as its existence is validated in the world. Islamic republics exist in almost all the islamic world and unfortunately they don't seem to be lighting up. Until the "arab spring" started up, there were 4 nations in the islamic world who were not islamic republics:
a) Egypt
b) Syria
c) Libya
d) Saudi Arabia -> this one being one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world. the other 3... their fate is uncertain.
Ok. So this is a quick your of the types of republics out there in the world. The first 3 are quite important. However, it is equally important to note that each republic of each kind has its own uniqueness and its own differences. Saying that all parliamentary republics are the same is quite a fallacy and should only be done in generalizing the notion for academic purposes... same for all the rest. Cheers.
eace