Oh, That Rush! He's Such A *Kidder!*

[pengolodh_sc]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter, "bluesqueak" wrote:
[snip]
> Some examples from my own country:
> 
> Mrs Thatcher, a British Prime Minister in the 1980's (Prime
> Minister is the title given to the political leader of the
> United Kingdom, btw) was treated very differently by the media,
> simply because she was the first woman in that job.
> 
> [And no one seemed to notice that England had had female heads of 
> state quite a few times before ;-)]
[snip]

But then, Baroness Thatcher never has been head of state - she was 
head of government.  In a monarchy, the difference is profound, 
because the head of state becomes a head of state by way of 
inheritance, while the head of government comes to that position by 
way of election.  In USA, the President fills both roles, but that is 
a relatively unique situation in modern times - in most democratic 
republics (France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Iceland, etc.), the 
President is the Head of State, while the Prime Minister is the Head 
of Government.

Best regards
Christian Stubø
Nitpicker