Google me: Goodbye Queen, we're keeping all the power

By JULIET ROWAN

Republicanism has been a hot topic in the past week since Helen Clark announced a review of New Zealand's constitutional arrangements.

The Prime Minister stopped short of saying we should sever ties with the monarchy, but she left no doubt about her feelings.

"With the best will in the world, it's hard to see how our current arrangements reflect the reality of a proud, independent 21st-century New Zealand," she said.

But the public was more cautious.

A Herald on Sunday/DigiPoll survey showed 53.9 per cent of people were happy with the Queen and 36.4 per cent supported electing a New Zealand head of state.

But what is republicanism and where did it begin?

Google provides the answers in 299,000 entries.

Scholar Bo Li traces republicanism to Rome in about 500BC, and the Italian city states in the Middle Ages and Renaissance period.

People rejected monarchs and church rulers in favour of self-governing communities with elected representatives.

"Classical republicanism ... posits that a government should answer to no one other than the community of people that it governs," Li wrote.

His words are at Republicanism and Democracy.

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia says contemporary republicanism equals support for the abolition of constitutional monarchies, pointing out that this is particularly true in British Commonwealth countries.

"In these countries, republicanism is largely about the post-colonial evolution of their relationships with the United Kingdom."

In Australia, republicanism is a long-running political issue. In 1999, a referendum to cut ties with the British monarchy was narrowly defeated.

Wikipedia dedicates a section to Australian Republicanism outlining the cultural, historical and constitutional arguments for charge.

The main argument, it says, is that "it is inappropriate for the citizen of a country at the other end of the world to be their head of state".

Wikipedia says opponents believe Australia is already "a republic by stealth", having removed various references to the monarchy.

In 1993, references to the Queen were dropped from the oath of citizenship.

Queensland also deleted royal references in legislation.

And Australian institutions can no longer apply to have "royal" in their title.

The Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand says republicanism in New Zealand goes back to 1835, when Frenchman Baron de Thierry tried to establish an independent state of Hokianga.

He was thwarted by the signing of the Declaration of Independence between the British Colonial Office and 34 northern Maori chiefs.

The website gives five reasons for New Zealand becoming a republic:

* To bring our head of state home.

* To signal our independence and maturity to the world.

* To emphasise that power should come from the people.

* To clarify the role and powers of our head of state.

* To erase the archaic succession rules of the monarchy.

France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Ethiopia, China and Russia have all become republics.

Spain is a rare example in which monarchy was restored in the 20th century.