Re: CHAT: General Question

andrew scripsit:

> We need to be able to choose our own President and not leave it in the
> hands of the politicians.  While I favour republicanism NZ has the
> problem that our founding document was signed between the representative
> of the crown and the indigenous tribes.  Movement towards republicanism
> would mean the state looses the legitimacy it has from that document and
> it will have to be renegotiated.  That promises to be messy.
Not necessarily: there is precedent.  The heads of state of Andorra,
an independent nation between France and Spain (pop. 66K, area 468 km^2,
independent 1278) has two heads of state, locally known as "co-princes":
the King of France and the Bishop of Seo de Urgel in Spain.
The King, of course, is no longer with us, but the President of
France now serves the same function.  From the Andorran viewpoint, the
change from monarchy to republic in France has changed nothing.

ObLang: Andorra is the only independent country where Catalan is
the sole official language.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter