May, 1. Comrades, let's celebrate!

[jorb]

Yeah, shame the good ol' king isn't running things nowadays, else we'd throw all that riff-raff onto galleons.

All forms of government have non-democratic institutions. Courts, for example. Most people are able to recognize that a "democratization" of the courts would be the same as mob rule. Democracy is obviously not as institutionally fantastic and universally applicable as you seem to believe.

[Potjeh]

But at least it never installed Karoly Khuen-Hedervary as the ban of Croatia.

[pyrale]

"democratization" of the courts would be the same as mob rule.

What's wrong with mob rule ?

[Potjeh]

Juries work just fine in USA, BTW.

[jorb]

Meh. Words can have multiple definitions.

Yes, and some are more functional than others. The fact that language changes over time does not mean that use or abuse of its conventions aren't issues. Prices on a free market change and evolve over time, but if you do not respect what they are at a given point then you are a defrauder or a thief. Imprecise, slippery and fuzzy language are tools of the demagouge trade, and you need not listen to more than one speech by a Hitler or an Obama to realize that. It is important that the idioms of idiots do not receive widspread recognition and use, lest our language degenerate completely to Orwellian newspeak.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Tertii_Imperii

I'll edit in this quote because I find it instructive.

Lingua Tertii Imperii studies the way that Nazist propaganda altered the German language to inculcate people with National-Socialist ideas. [...] LTI demonstrates how a new language came to be naturally spoken by most of the population. On the reverse, the text also emphasizes the idea that resistance to oppression begins by questioning the constant use of buzzwords.

Emphasis mine.

But at least it never installed Karoly Khuen-Hedervary as the ban of Croatia.

lol, yeah, at least we have that. Good job on finding an obscure example. Wikipedia barely has an article.

Juries work just fine in USA, BTW.

Yeah, OJ was totally innocent. Jokes aside the jury fills a very particular function, namely to deliver a verdict on the guilt or innocence of the charged party. Determining the punishment is up to the judge. Majoritarian vote is a very marginal element of the process. Gulliotines and lynchings are the tell-tale signs of an actually democratic judicial process.

[Potjeh]

I'm just bringing up that example because it's closest to me. Basically, kingdom of Croatia entered a personal union with kingdom of Hungary, and some centuries down the line they go and replace Croatian with Hungarian as official language in the nominally separate kingdom of Croatia. Sure, it's against the spirit of the original agreement, but what's some words on paper to a monarch?

[jorb]

In the democratic United States, on the other hand, constitutions are always respected by our wise overlords in the political class.

EDIT: I agree that what you describe is a usurpation of Croatia's rights. The state is an expansive entity. The lure of expanding the power of the state and the monarch exists under a monarchy as well, but notice that this was done why? To appease the democratic hungarian left of the revolutions of -48 fame. I'm not very familiar with the politics of the late Austrian empire, but notice at least that these developments take place in an era that is far more democratic and nationalistic than previous eras.

When the Monarch usurps new powers, people tend to realize that it is bad for them that he does so. When democratic parliaments usurp new powers people wrongly believe that there's something in it for them.

[pyrale]

Yeah, OJ was totally innocent.

There are enough examples of juries not functioning correctly in the US (e.g. Dan White) to use a case that has several issues, starting from the investigation.

by the way, nice trolling, using massive godwin and pointing out similar behaviour from Obama and Hitler in a sentence criticizing demagogy.

[jorb]

by the way, nice trolling, using massive godwin and pointing out similar behaviour from Obama and Hitler in a sentence criticizing demagogy.

Godwin's law is bullshit. There are plenty of cases where comparisons with Hitler are very apt, and this is one such instant. I'm not accusing Obama of genocide -- after all he's just responsible for the deaths of a couple of hundred people -- what I am saying however is that his empty rhetoric makes him a demagouge, comparison with Hitler or not.

So, yes, please stop trolling.

[Potjeh]

When people protest against parliament's expansion of power, they tend to get ignored. When they protest against anything a king does, they tend to get executed for treason.