Cover Copy for Myriad Universes and These Haunted Seas

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well, I'm not sure how United Earth could have a Prime Minister as both head of government and head of state. Every Parliamentary form of government I know of requires a separate, usually ceremonial or mostly-cermonial (with reserve powers) head of state, whether it be monarch or president. As I implied above, my inclination is to assume that United Earth has an elected President who appoints the Prime Minister on the basis of who can command the support of the majority of the UE Parliament, based upon the references to UE President Lydia Littlejohn in Starfleet: Year One and SCE: The Future Begins and to UE Prime Ministers in "Eleven Hours Out," The Good That Men Do, and, now, spoilerspoilerspoiler. But that's just me.

I suppose that's right. If Earth has both a President and a PM, I'm sure it works the same way as in real-world governments: the President as head of state, and PM as head of government. I know relatively little about governments that aren't Presidential (such as ours) so I didn't know if there was such a thing as a government headed *only* by a PM. I guess there isn't.
And is it only Safari that won't work with all this frakking spoiler code?

 

[Defcon]

Spoiler: Minutiae

Yes, yes, I know. And the formal name for the Irish PM is actually the Taoiseach, and the Italian PM's formal title is President of the Council of Ministers, and the Scottish one is called the First Minister, etc. But it's really just different names for what is essentially the same thing.

Spoiler: not sure this is really necessary anymore ;)

Like I said in my first response I know how you meant it, I was just nitpicking. And although I and you know all this, I have often seen that people know little about Germany (at least the post WW II Germany ), so I thought I just point it.

 

[LightningStorm]

And is it only Safari that won't work with all this frakking spoiler code?

Apparently. As it works with IE, Firefox, and IE on Windows Mobile (although on the latter I can't actually click the button to see the spoilers).

 

[Sci]

Well, I'm not sure how United Earth could have a Prime Minister as both head of government and head of state. Every Parliamentary form of government I know of requires a separate, usually ceremonial or mostly-cermonial (with reserve powers) head of state, whether it be monarch or president. As I implied above, my inclination is to assume that United Earth has an elected President who appoints the Prime Minister on the basis of who can command the support of the majority of the UE Parliament, based upon the references to UE President Lydia Littlejohn in Starfleet: Year One and SCE: The Future Begins and to UE Prime Ministers in "Eleven Hours Out," The Good That Men Do, and, now, spoilerspoilerspoiler. But that's just me.

I suppose that's right. If Earth has both a President and a PM, I'm sure it works the same way as in real-world governments: the President as head of state, and PM as head of government. I know relatively little about governments that aren't Presidential (such as ours) so I didn't know if there was such a thing as a government headed *only* by a PM. I guess there isn't.

You should read up on the Westminster system. It's a really fascinating form of government with some interesting advantages over ours -- and disadvantages against ours. If you're interested but don't want to read about it, a good source would actually be the recent movie The Queen starring Helen Mirren, which deals a lot with what the proper role of the British Monarchy is in the age of democracy (in addition to being a kickass movie). In general, you can take the basics about the role of the Queen and apply it to Presidents in parliamentary republics.

And is it only Safari that won't work with all this frakking spoiler code?

Yes.

 

[captcalhoun]

the UK system is far simpler to understand and doesn't take all bastard year to sort out. it's all over in 48 hours tops.

600-odd MPs, party with the most seats wins control. dude leadaing said party is PM.

simple.

the only disadvantage is the fact that we don't use proportional representation so the party with the most votes doesn't always win the most seats to win control.

 

[Csalem]

^Yes but in Ireland where there is PR someone can win the seat who did not have the highest number of first preferences in the first round. Our system is sometimes called too-democratic. Our present coalition government is made up of the largest party as well as two of the smallest. You have the question how democratic it is when a party with two seats out of 170 odd plays a major role in the running of the country.