From: "iaamoac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: France's influence
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 21:39:52 -0000

--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "J. van Baardwijk"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> At 15:11 17-03-03 -0600, Dan Minette wrote:
>
> > > > Absolutely. Come Sunday, I will have been living in The
Netherlands
> > > > for the last 36 years. I can assure you that our politicians
have
> > > > been elected (two elections so far this year), and I can
assure you
> > > > that if my country would be a republic, I would know about it.
> > >
> > > Republic (n)
> > > ....
> > > 2) a) A political order in which the supreme power lies in a
body of
> > > citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and
representatives
> > > responsible to them.
> > >    b) A nation that has such a political order.
> > >
> > > JDG - Not the Netherlands? Maru?
> >
> >The first definition I found in Webster's indicates that a
republic does
> >not have a monarch.  The second definition is the one you gave.
>
> I already figured that the first definition had to be something
that
> contradicted JDG's argument. Thanks for the quick response, Dan --
you
> saved me the trouble of looking up that first definition myself.
>
> So, a republic does not have a monarch. The Netherlands does have a
> monarch, therefore The Netherlands is not a republic.
>
> Q.E.D.

Uhhh..... I don't know how Dutch dictionaries work, but in English
dictionary definitions are *OR* propositions, not *AND* propositions.

I looked it up, thinking John was wrong. He's not:


From m-w.com:
32 entries found for republic. The first 10 are listed below.
To select an entry, click on it. For more results, click here.
Main Entry: re�pub�lic
Pronunciation: ri-'p&-blik
Function: noun
Etymology: French r�publique, from Middle French republique, from Latin respublica, from res thing, wealth + publica, feminine of publicus public -- more at REAL, PUBLIC
Date: 1604
1 a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c : a usually specified republican government of a political unit <the French Fourth Republic>
2 : a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity <the republic of letters>
3 : a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the U.S.S.R., or Yugoslavia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And just for the heck of it:

4 entries found for democracy.

Main Entry: de�moc�ra�cy
Pronunciation: di-'m�-kr&-sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dEmokratia, from dEmos + -kratia -cracy
Date: 1576
1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S.
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Back to the deuling dictionaries, I guess.

Julia, would you mind posting the OED definition of "republic", please?
:)
Jon


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