Is the wizarding world a democracy?

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 75208

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meltowne" <meltowne at y...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sbursztynski" 
> 
> >...you certainly wouldn't 
> > have people being dragged off to that nightmarish place Azkaban 
> > without a trial, as Hagrid was in CoS.
> 
> (and Sirius - he never had a trial either).
> 
> ... or people dragged off to military prisons to face a military 
> tribunal - if they even get around to setting it up?  Not only do 
we 
> have foreignersin guantanamo bay, but we also have many in custody 
> who were already in the US, plus at leat 2 US citizens I know of 
who 
> were at least initially denied access even to a lawyer.  While I 
> think the WW is morelike a constitutional monarchy than a 
democracy, 
> I thinkt he situations cited could just as easily happen in a 
> democracy.

Laura:

Democracy only works if the participants follow the rules.  what we 
have here is a conscious decision by the administration not to do 
that.  So do we now have a functioning democracy?

But back on point...it's my understanding that a ministry is an 
administrative, rather than an elected body.  It would be more like 
the Cabinet departments here than the Congress.  So if the Minister 
of Magic is appointed, the question is, by whom?  There must be an 
executive overseeing all such ministries.  The suggestion in the 
books is that the MoM is a very secret part of the regular British 
government, in which case it would be under the control of the Prime 
Minister, right?  (Like Tony Blair doesn't have enough on his hands 
already-or would it still have been Maggie Thatcher?)
You don't get the idea from the books that members of the wizarding 
world vote in regular public elections or even private ones for 
wizards and witches.  The description of the way Fudge came to power 
was a little hazy on the actual mechanics.  You can only imagine what 
an election campaign would be like in the wizarding world...