Re: CHAT: Californian secessionists (was Re: Californian vowels [was Re: Likin

Quoting Tristan Alexander McLeay <zsau@...>:

> At 03.16 p.m. 2.10.2001, you wrote:
> >And there are actually political scientists who think we should
> >abolish the states and make them provinces! Heh. _Multus sanguis
> >per vias fluebat_...
>
> What's the difference between a 'state' and a 'province', anyway? (And
> can anyone tell me if 'state' as I, an Aussie, understand it the same as
> the way Americans understand it?)
I forgot to answer one part of this question.  I don't know the exact
distribution of powers between Australia's states and its federal
government, but I gather that it is more like Canada's (de jure)
constitution than America's (ignoring for the moment that the US
and its states are all presidential systems, while Canada and its
provinces and Australia and its states are parliamentary systems.)
That is to say, when Canada was "confederated" in 1867, they were
very much aware of the recent events to the south of their border
and thought (and were to a certain extent correct) that the US's
problem was that all powers were reserved to the states unless and
until the states chose to give up those powers to the federation
at large.  So, Canada's constitutional documents specify that some
powers are reserved to the provinces, but if the case is not clear,
then it should be assumed to be the federation's job, not the
provinces.  (This is why I said that Canada used to be more centralized
than the US.) Also, I've never been quite clear why there was a
pressing need for Australia to be a federation in the first place.
I mean, there were distinct British colonies there, but AFAIK they
hadn't been around long enough to grow distinct political and cultural
conditions like the US States had.

On the other hand, Australia seems to have rip its organic nomenclature
off the US wholesale:  it has a "House of Representatives", a "Senate",
etc. so maybe there's more to the American connection? I don't really
know.

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>

"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III

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