Field Guide to Naming Nations

[The Beatles]

1. Nations with "Democracy" or "Democratic" in their name are dictatorships.
2. Nations with "Kingdom" in their name are democracies.

Curious irony. Any other little sarcasms in geopolitics?

[Kraken]

hey beatle head, is it fun living in 1984 where Big Brother controls you? *laughs*
remember! 2 + 5 = 8

where do you get this crap? *laughs*

and i do see what you are driving at i.e.: United Kingdom etc... *laughs*

[Nuclear Raunch]

DELETED

[The Beatles]

In English alphabetical order:
* Kingdom of Cambodia ?
* Kingdom of Denmark
* Kingdom of Nepal ?
* Kingdom of the Netherlands
* Kingdom of Norway
* Kingdom of Spain
* Kingdom of Sweden
* Kingdom of Thailand
* United Kingdom

?: "Not Free" according to Freedom House.

Note: Japan was "Empire of Japan" until the 50s. Still a c. m., but official name is now "Japan".
Note: Finland used to be the Grand Duchy of Finland.

[Gen. Volkov]

What the heck happened to the Dutch republic????

Cambodia and Nepal probably don't count.. but I didn't realize Sweden still had a King.

[The Beatles]

Cambodia and Nepal are both constitutional monarchies, it's probably other factions or press freedom issues that keep it from being Not Quite Free. After all, Russia is Not Quite Free, yet most people think of it as Free.

Yes, monarchs are more popular 'ere than there. Canada has one too, EIIR.

[Gen. Volkov]

However, nations that have names like "Republic of" do tend to be free, the unfree ones tend to be countries with names like "The Free People's Democratic Republic of".

See
Republic of France,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Old Zaire),
People's Republic of the Congo (Now Republic of the Congo),
Democratic People's Republic of North Korea,
Republic of South Korea
for examples of this. Generally, the more oppresive the regime, the more inherent contradictions in the name.

[The Beatles]

Yes, Republic is pretty common. It is generally used when a nation has lost a monarchy in recent times. It just substitutes "Republic of" for "Kingdom of". E.g. Eire, '59.

[Gen. Volkov]

*Nod* Just pointing that out. Though Canada, the US and Japan all upset that nice little theory of ours. In fact most countries in the Americas have neither Republic or Kingdom in their name if I'm not mistaken.

[The Beatles]

Well, the Field Guide didn't apply to nations which failed to include either "Democra-" or "Kingdom" in their name. Oh well.

[Gen. Volkov]

Indeed. Have you ever read "America : The Book" written by the Daily Show people? It's very funny, they had a little section similar to your field guide. They ranked a series of countries by oppression level vs. number of contradictions in the name or something like that. When they got to "The Democratic Free People's Republic of Crackheadistan" They just this for oppression level: "Hide".

[The Beatles]

:*laughs*:

No, haven't read it. What's the Daily Show?

[Nuclear Raunch]

How dare you!!! The Daily Show is one of the only entertaining shows on tv. It's on Comedy Central and is basically a spoof news show. Here, have a couple snippets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw2Qc99ynCA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uuJh4bv-fg&mode=related&search=

[The Beatles]

Ohh. Sounds like Not the Nine O'Clock News. You say it's funny? Ah, maybe worth checking out. I saw the Comedy Central channel at a friend's place once and found it entirely without humour. I'll watch the videos later.

[Nuclear Raunch]

Comedy Central is hit and miss, mostly miss, for all their programming except for The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. TCR is very similiar to TDS in the type of humor found, but the format is a little bit different. You could almost call it an extension of TDS.