On 21/03/07, James Farrar james.farrar@gmail.com wrote:
It seems to me that the "constitutional monarchy" model isn't totally appropriate here, as in a constitutional monarchy, the monarch has considerable power in theory but none in practice, as the use of any power to over-rule the government would immediately lead to the removal of the said powers from them and a move directly to a republic.
Yeah. In extreme cases, e.g. [[Charles I of England]], the people will express their displeasure by cutting his head off. Which probably counts as natural causes ;-)
Australians will know the example of the [[Australian constitutional crisis of 1975]], in which it was made clear that certain theoretical powers could be used *precisely once*.
In the present case, it's clear the community will tell Jimbo to get knotted if they seriously disagree.
I consider it useful to have Jimbo there. He's pretty level-headed and most certainly has the encyclopedia's interests at heart. Mostly his power is that (a) he speaks and people listen (whatever they think of the result) (b) he's right enough that he's worth listening to (c) a considerable reserve of personal loyalty from community members aware of (b).
- d.