Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to resign!
No, not as President of France, but as Co-Prince of Andorra.
See IHT. I originally heard this story on Radio France this morning, and there it was noted that Andorra has elections coming up for its “directly elected head of government.” I had previously thought there were no cases of avdirectly elected head of government in a constitutional monarchy,* but apparently there is at least one. I suppose that’s because we practitioners of comparative politics tend to overlook countries with populations of around only 72,000.
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* Of course, an even bigger oddity is that half of its dual monarchy is actually an elected republican leader–elected by citizens of another country, that is. The other half is a Catalan bishop.
Ah, but Sarkozy is not a directly elected head of government, but a directly elected joint head of state.
The (single) head of government is the Cap de Govern who is appointed by the Coprinces, acting together, after election by the legislature, a process that is fairly standard in non-Westminster constitutional monarchies. (Article 68) And non-Westminster constitutional dyarchies.
My apologies to Tom if I just committed a princely subhyphenation.
Seed planted by Alan — 28 March 2009 @ 01:25
I note the linked translation prefers “Coprinceps”, but uses it as a plural, whereas my rather shaky Latin would make the plural “Coprincipes”.
I would have thought dyarchies went out with the Spartans, but on reflection, one could argue that both (1) the splitting of executive power under almost all parliamentary systems (apart from S Africa) between Head of State and Head of Govt, and (2) the vesting of substantive powers in a Vice-President (other than twiddling thumbs waiting for the President to die ), are expressions of the same principle that led the Romans to insist on two Consuls with mutual power of veto. Even the US Veep, who is now the President’s de facto appointee rather than the de facto Opposition Leader (the 12th Amdt, reinforced by the 24th), has a constitutional monopoly on starting the machinery for suspending (as opposed to impeaching) his or her benefactor.
Seed planted by Tom Round — 28 March 2009 @ 07:34
My Catalan is weaker than my Latin, but its just possible Catalan has singular princep and plural princeps.
Seed planted by Alan — 28 March 2009 @ 18:33
Well, the translation is in English… why not “co-princes”? (and “co princes” or “coprinces” for the American version?)
Seed planted by Tom Round — 28 March 2009 @ 19:33
If Wikipedia can be trusted the Catalan singular is ‘princep’. I do not know why that text does not translate expressions like ‘coprinceps’, ‘cap de govern’ or ‘consell general’ which all seem pretty much self-evident.
And while we’re at it one wonders how Sarkozy’s resignation, by consigning the people of Andorra to the rule of a prince-bishop, would sit with the principle of laïcité. Andorra obviously needs its own little fruitery on these pages.
Seed planted by Alan — 28 March 2009 @ 19:46
The principle of subhyphenated coprincely nontranslation seems to be principal in the principality.
Seed planted by Alan — 29 March 2009 @ 03:17
The IHT link is no longer working; looks like NYTimes finally integrated the site properly. Here’s the article at RFI.
Seed planted by Michel S. — 30 March 2009 @ 07:19
More intrigued by MSS’s typo (“av” = modern Hebrew for “father”) being oddly appropriate in a discussion on a non-hereditary monarchy.
Seed planted by Tom Round — 12 June 2009 @ 01:16