[HPforGrownups] Re: British constitution

[Robert Carnegie]

No: HPFGUIDX 20431

08/06/01 00:32:34, "Caius Marcius" <coriolan at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Demelza" <muggle-reader at a...> wrote:
>> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:
>> 
>> > Question 1: Can anybody tell me how a person becomes Minister of 
>> > Magic? Because it is mentioned that e.g. Barty Crouch was 
>believed 
>> to 
>> > be the next minitser, but after his son's trial and his wife's 
>death 
>> > his popularity went down and so, in the end, the lucky one was 
>> > Cornelius fudge. But it is never made clear who nominates or 
>elects 
>> > the minister. (On the contrary, the Hogwarts Headmaster is 
>obviously 
>> > elected by the board of governors)
>> > 
>> 
>> It's never explained in the series. I assume it is based upon the 
>UK's 
>> parliamentary government and how they elect their officials. 
>Actually 
>> I wouldn't be terribly surprized if the Ministry of Magic is a part 
>of 
>> the UK government, since Fudge did inform the "muggle Minister" 
>about 
>> the Black escape from Azkaban implying that the muggle government 
>is 
>> aware of the magical population.
>
>An interesting idea, although I tend to doubt that the Ministers of 
>Magic form a part of the Muggle governments. I think that it more 
>likely that they comprise "separate but equal" (i.e., separate but 
>unequal) powers.  Nevertheless, we see at the Quidditch World Cup 
>that the competing teams are very close to the Muggles nations (with 
>a few necesary additions, such as Transylvania). The Irish and 
>Bulgarian fans proudly wave the Muggle flags of their respective 
>nations.

I'd guess that historically, the Minister of Magic was one of the
monarch's ministers of government - John Dee for Queen Elizabeth I,
perhaps.  When the wizards around the world went into hiding,
this arrangement ceased to be general knowledge, but the
Minister retains that title.  As pointed out, the Muggle prime
minister knows that there's a Ministry of Magic, but he may
not be sure just where it is.  I presume that Cornelius Fudge
doesn't attend the government's regular meetings with the
prime minister and with the queen using an Invisibility Cloak,
but who knows?

The famously "unwritten" British constitution has a lot of
features that don't actually work very well, but that don't
cause problems because, usually, people want the system
to work and not break down, so no one presses in the
wrong places.  For instance, the prime ministar appoints
archbishops in the church.  This ultimately goes back to
Henry VIII's unusual approach to reforming the church.
A mischievous prime minister could make serious trouble
with this power, but in practice it works moderately well.

Other countries have come to their present-day
constitutional understandings with a great deal more
trouble, including bloodshed and warfare, often quite
recently, relatively speaking - I'm thinking of Spain and
Greece.  I suggest that consequently, these states have
had more people investing more effort in developing
a constitutional settlement with more significant
safeguards against trouble than Britain's.  The nearest
that JKR has her wizards come to acknowledging
real-life modern history is having Dumbledore
defeat a Dark Wizard named Grindelwald in 1945
(according to his Chocolate Frog card), which at least
hints that the European war ending in that year was
echoed in the wizarding world.  Incidentally, I think
we are in the market for German-language anagrams
of Grindelwald's name, along the lines of Lord Voldemort's
own anagram in English.

In practice, the Ministry of Magic _is_ the wizards' government
in Britain.  It doesn't work particularly well, either.  That the
popularity of the Minister himself is an issue may not definitely
imply that there's a direct plebiscite - but theoretically, the
Minister has to be a respected wizard or witch, a good
leader for the whole community.  Regardless of how the
candidate is chosen, only a popular person can do the job.

For no particular reason I'll throw in the suggestions of an
electoral college of all wizards aged over one hundred, or
King Arthur's ancient Sorting Crown.

Robert Carnegie
Meretricious!