[HPforGrownups] Is the WW a democracy?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 75273

sbursztynski:
> This may have been handled in another thread, so excuse me if it has,
> but ... just how *is* the wizard government chosen? While it's not
> impossible that an idiot like Fudge would be elected democratically
> (he makes Jim Hacker of Yes, Minister look like an intellectual), he
> seems more like the head of the civil service, but more - in a
> democracy, Voldemort wouldn't have to resort to violence, he'd just
> have to stand in the next election. He'd wipe the floor with Fudge.

All of which leads me to conclude that the WW isn't democratic in any way
that we would understand.

(Of course, that also means that the denizens of the WW would find a
description of "muggle mokrassies" equally incomprehensible!)

Until OoP came out, I would have argued that there weren't _any_ democratic
elements in choosing the Minister, but it's explicitly now stated that Fudge
was "elected".

So the question then becomes, _how_ was he chosen for election, and by
_whom_ was he elected?

There is to me a "feel" within the Ministry of the way the leader of the
Tory Party used to be chosen, which was that the "great and the good" would
consult with one another until a new leader "emerged" from those discussions
and could then be presented to the party, and I haven't seen anything to
challenge that theory. Who would choose? Probably the senior officials in
the Ministry, someone who was "one of us", who wouldn't overthrow the way
things are done or challenge the fundamental principles.

And I'd agree with thge poster who suggested that the Wizenagamot (sp?)
would be the body who would confirm or reject that candidate in an election.
Elections don't necessarily have to involve a choice, then can just as
easily be to confirm or deny. It would also sit well with the other kinds of
collective body that make decisions in the WW: the tribunal for justice, the
wizarding congress to lay down the higher rules for the bureaucracy to
follow, even (on a smaller scale) the Governors of Hogwarts

Cheers

Ffred

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