Was there ever a democracy where the three branches went to war?
Upvote:2
Your question is primarily terminological and cannot have a historical answer.
Australia in the early 2000s had federal parliamentary elections combined with a court found constitutional separation of executive and judicial functions.
The executive function and judicial function found themselves in conflict over the executive's position on torturing UN refugees. The court repeatedly found laws to be unlawful, but lacked equity power. Parliament repassed the policy of the executive. The executive defunded the judicial, increasing its workload.
Upvote:5
To assume each branch of government will "go to war" is simply a misunderstanding of parliamentarism ("Parliament is supreme").
If OP did not mean, literally, the branches fight each other physically, but a more modest "in conflict" -- whereby the legislature's intention was not interpreted by the judiciary appropriately, and in similiar vein, the government did not enforce laws consistent with intent of legislature -- the answer would of course have to be yes.
Conflicts Between Each Branch of Government
There have been conflicts between each branch of government. How often are they in conflict? Almost every single (working) day -- just watch the evening news of most liberal democracies ("democracy", of course, is the other key pillar without which seperation of power is meaningless).
Do branches of government actually function as per the trias politica philosophy whereby there has to be a strict separation between three independent powers in every nation? Of course not.
Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws, published mid-18th century, which inspired both the French and the American intellectuals during their revolution, is still merely theory. Very good political theory albeit. To my knowledge, there is no single accepted indicator of a nation's perfect implementation of this model.
So, conflicts between branches happen often. If it deteriorates further it would be called "civil war" and the end of democratic institutions because martial law would be imposed to restore order, failing which a new nation will be formed. A successful imposition of martial law is known by another name, "coup d'état". That ends a democratically elected (legally derived powers of) government. How many martial law regimes have there been? Well, we can count that (I haven't).
Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws: In Practice
How do branches actually work in daily life, if it approximates, but not achieve a clear separation of powers? Too much for me to explain all the details, and I'm not sure I'm capable of it. In any case, this was answered by Bagehot in his book, "The English Constitution" (1865). This book was for the British system of government (parliamentary democracy, whereby the head of state is a distinct person from the head of government).
For America, it would be presidential system, whereby the head of state is the head of government. And Bagehot's contemporary, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, wrote "Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics" (1885).
In sum, how do democratically elected branches of governemnt function imperfectly (according to the Trias Politica model)? Both Bagehot and Wilson answered this in their respective 19th-century books.
(I suppose this is a historical answer).
- Just discovered an excellent essay on this topic - Jeremy Waldron, Separation of Powers in Tought and Practice, 54 B.C.L. Rev. 433 (2013).
More post
- 📝 Is it true the British heavily downplayed their defeat in Cartagena?
- 📝 Are there instances where collective farming has actually brought benefit to the population
- 📝 What happened to all the historical photos taken by Malcolm X?
- 📝 Were any signers of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or Constitution of the United States Black (also called Negro)?
- 📝 In 1700-1900 England, how were 'manners an end in themselves and not merely a means to achieve propriety by conformity'?
- 📝 How long would it have taken to sail from Boston to Nova Scotia in 1775?
- 📝 Has anyone written Australian history from the perspective of the original inhabitants - the aborigines?
- 📝 Was writing material for to-do list accessible in medieval Europe?
- 📝 How did corn become the most produced crop in the world?
- 📝 The situation in nazi Germany of a Jewish male married to an "aryan" female vs Jewish female married to an "aryan" male?
- 📝 Have there been negative large-scale long term effects from vaccines?
- 📝 What was the price of a theatre ticket in London during WW2?
- 📝 Looking for quote about workhouses
- 📝 Was it ever deemed illegal to translate the Qu'ran?
- 📝 What wars were there which were contemporaneous with but unconnected to ww2?
- 📝 Why do French houses have exterior window shutters?
- 📝 Why was Khomeini in France? Who allowed him to leave and why?
- 📝 Why wasn't Monaco unified with France?
- 📝 California land cases to the US Supreme Court
- 📝 What is the reason for the modern prominence of the Confederate battle flag, as opposed to some other Confederate flag?
- 📝 Why are some Pharaohs depicted wearing the red or the white crowns even after the unification of Egypt?
- 📝 When did we know the color/appearance of all the planets in our solar system?
- 📝 When a wattle-and-daub construction was demolished, how did they recycle or dispose of the materials?
- 📝 How well did William III speak English at time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688?
- 📝 When did age gaps in marriage become looked down upon in America?
- 📝 Did the Americans trade destroyers in the "destroyer deal" that they would later need themselves?
- 📝 Valid source of Greek historical periods , in a URL
- 📝 How did the Germans get housing again after WWII?
- 📝 Why was only the Silver medal awarded for music at the 1932s Olympics?
- 📝 Toyotomi Hideyoshi threatened to exterminate all Japanese foxes unless he heard from the god Inari. What was the aftermath (if any)?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was there ever a democracy where the three branches went to war?
- 📝 Was there ever a war mission where the personnel were instructed to surrender when the mission complete?
- 📝 Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?
- 📝 Has there ever been a war between two service branches in the same country?
- 📝 Was there ever a situation where members of two warring militaries were on leave in the same neutral location?
- 📝 Was there ever a type of powered model car/vehicle racing, where the cars were in no way controlled, and were all on the one single shared track?
- 📝 Was there ever a strategic concern about East German refusing to fight against West Germans (and vice versa) if the cold war had gone hot?
- 📝 Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- 📝 Was there ever a treaty between 2 entities with significantly different translations to the detriment of one party?
- 📝 What was the cleanest war ever fought?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 Has there ever been an attempted military takeover of a democracy in the western world?
- 📝 Was there a case where a king died while the heir to the throne was unborn?
- 📝 Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?
- 📝 Was there a massacre in the Algerian war calculated to provoke French reprisals?
- 📝 Was there a bribery attempt by the UK to get the Ottomans to switch sides in World War I?
- 📝 Has there ever been an election where the two biggest parties form a coalition to govern?
- 📝 Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?
- 📝 Has there ever been a situation where the "motherland" treated its colonies well anywhere in the world?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case where a country adopted the currency of another country with a smaller economy?
- 📝 Was there ever a case where *physically* exporting fiat money caused severe damage to an economy?
- 📝 Was there ever support for any persons outside of the empire to be elected Holy Roman Emperor?
- 📝 Are there notable incident(s) where Russia/SU was wrongfully accused by Western powers in the 20th century?
- 📝 Was the tide of war ever turned by a wonder weapon?
- 📝 During World War II, were there any parts of the Japanese overseas empire that was capable of local re-supply?
- 📝 Was there ever any co-existence solution to peace with Israel that the Arab Palestinian side proposed or said would accept?
- 📝 Where was the Ixcanha Maya community located during the Caste War of the Yucatán?
- 📝 Historically, was the War of 1812 ever called by another name?
- 📝 Was there ever a single collection of the Corpus Juris Civilis and has it survived?
- 📝 Was there ever a male-equivalent to a harem in the Ottoman Empire?