Democracy and prejudice

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50757

Ebony writes:
I can't remember if I've got canon evidence for this, 
or if it's just a gut feeling, but I think that wizards
and witches are still subjects of the Queen. <snip>

Ali writes:
In terms of being subjects of the Queen, I think that 
the answer is yes. <snip>

I respond:
I wonder how taxes, the census, and matters of justice
are handled, then?

Regarding the justice question, I mean in the sense
only of wizard events colliding with the muggle world.  
I.e.: the catalyst event for Sirius going to Azkaban 
was the death of muggles. If the MoM is connected to 
the real British government, do you think they'd (the
"real" British gov't) allow a 13-time murderer to go 
to a wizards prison?


Later, Tom (I) wrote:
I'm still a little confused about the election
process - wouldn't we have heard *something* about
an election... <snip>

Ali responded:
Why? The Potterverse is written from Harry's point 
of view. He has interaction with the MoM, but has 
probably got little interest in elections. <snip>


I add:
You know, I was thinking about this point, and when
was fourteen (Harry's age in GoF), President Clinton 
was getting elected in the U.S.. I *definitely* knew 
about that election, whether I was interested in it 
or not. And I definitely knew about elections that came
before that.

So, I guess I would say that, if the WW were in any
way democratic, we would have had to've heard, at 
least once, of some kind of election.


On this note, in an earlier post (same thread), I asked:
"Is there ever, ever, a mention in canon of wizarding 
elections?"

And Catlady responded:
Yes. In QTTA, chapter four. Barberus Bragge, Chief of 
the Wizards' Council, brought a Golden Snidget to a 
Quidditch match in 1269 and offered 150 Galleons 
("equivalent to over a million Galleons today") to the 
player who caught it. Kind-hearted Modesty Rabnott rescued 
the poor birdie and Chief Bragge confiscated her house. In 
a letter to her sister, she wrote: "Chief Bragge would have 
lost my vote if I'd had one." Some listies have asserted 
that Modesty's not having a vote means that the franchise 
was limited to males at that time, but I believe it 
INSTEAD means that there was a property requirement and 
Modesty did not own enough wealth to meet it. 

I respond:
Wow, Catlady! That's fantastic research!

Okay, so we have one reference, in *all* of canon,
to an election.

But couldn't that reference be in the same tongue-in-
cheek manner that Hermione enchanted a banner to read 
"Potter for President" during a Quidditch match?

I'd also like to offer an alternative to the listies' and
Catlady's interpretation of the quote:

Couldn't Modesty's "... IF I had one..." [emphasis 
is my own] quote be interpreted to mean that no-one 
had a vote?


-Tom