NationStates Jolt Archive

"The current United States government possesses more power than any mideval European absolute monarch"
-My history teacher

(and by govt, he does not mean only the Bush admin)

What do you make of this quote? I honestly can't help agreeing with him. I mean look at it: Welfare, FCC, all these intelligence organizations, etc

(Oh btw my history teacher is a staunch Republican so don't start calling him pinko, and by this quote he cannot be labled a neocon)

do nukes count?
edit: i mean, just about any country has more powerful weapons now than they did then.
plus, there's mass media, makes any kind of propaganda much easier. (again, that doesn't just apply to the us)

Nearly all governments today possess more power than any medieval absolute monarch.

Now you can't put the US in that category, because the US HAD no medieval absolute monarch.

"The current United States government possesses more power than any mideval European absolute monarch"
-My history teacher

(and by govt, he does not mean only the Bush admin)

What do you make of this quote? I honestly can't help agreeing with him. I mean look at it: Welfare, FCC, all these intelligence organizations, etc

(Oh btw my history teacher is a staunch Republican so don't start calling him pinko, and by this quote he cannot be labled a neocon)

Yep.
First off, there's the raw power of nuclear weaponry on hand.

Secondly, most medieval monarchs were dealing with a feudal system of law. I assume he means European medieval monarchs. There may be a fairly good argument that certain states, say medieval China, may have had powers associated with modern states that medieval monarchs did not have.

"The current United States government possesses more power than any mideval European absolute monarch"

I would say no for the following reasons

1) The Former European nations could go to war with a nation of a simmilar level of power to them and be reasonably certian of victory. Where as now, the Americans if they went to war with say China, they would both be nuked to bits and there would be no winners.

2) The absolute nature of the monarchy meant no checks on power. Whereas the office of the President has many checks on his power.

3) Because of the global nature of politics and trade today, the actions of the Americans have much more far reaching concequences which have to be far more taken into account than did the medievil monarchs.

4) The American President cannot strip someone of their possessions and land and send them to live somewhere else, where as Medievil Monarchs could (see acts of Attandia)

Is that power in the sense of 'power over its subjects/citizens' or power in the international sense?

edit: And when refering to the 'US government' do you mean executive, legislative and judicial branches, OR just the executive and legislative branches, OR only the executive branch, OR just the President himself.