Queen Elizabeth II came to America yesterday. Today she’ll visit Jamestown to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing on Jamestown Island of 108 members of an English settler group called the Virginia Company. But it’s a recent proposal by the city of New York that may have an ever stronger connection.
Queen Elizabeth the second is the monarch for 16 countries, including Canada, Australia, and of course, the UK. Thirty other countries have a single monarch, and Andorra has two co-monarchs. Are all monarchies created equal?
In an absolute monarchy the ruler has total power over people and land, although it is often limited by the aristocracy and/or the clergy. There are six absolute monarchies in the world today: Bhutan, Brunei, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, and Vatican City. Exemplifying the absolute monarchy was Louis the fourteenth, who said and lived by the words, “L’etat, c’est moi,” the state: that’s me.
Vatican City is the world’s only elected monarchy. To become Pope a Cardinal must receive at least two-thirds of the votes. And a Pope can change the election rules, which is exactly what Pope John Paul the second did, to allow election by simple majority if after a certain number of ballots no election has occurred.
Constitutional monarchies are mostly representative democracies, with the monarch serving as head of state and the prime minister as head of government. In the US, both roles are held by the same person: the President.
It’s good to be Queen: monarchs have a lot of money. But they could always use more. In 1992 a fire caused $100 million damage to the Windsor Castle, and Queen Elizabeth the 2nd asked taxpayers to pick up the tab. After considerable public outrage the Queen agreed to pay half herself. And she agreed to start paying income taxes as well.
The New York connection? No one would accuse the New York city government of being a monarchy. But to bring in more revenue, New York City Mayor Bloomberg: is looking to levy fees to drivers who venture south of 86th St.. Maybe the idea originally came from the Queen: to pay her taxes she began charging admittance fees to Buckingham Palace tours.
That’s today’s math behind the news. I’m Larry Shiller.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/03/queen.visit.ap/index.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18470749/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269840,00.html
http://www.apva.org/history/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_monarchy
http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/election.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_monarchy
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/kickboxthequeen/inbreeders.html
