Living in Canada, it is easy to succumb to the fear that the principal mainly English-speaking countries of the world, despite the seniority of their institutions, have lost the capacity of self-government.
Of all countries in the world with over 20 million people, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada are the three senior nations in terms of continuous political institutions. When Canadian Confederation came into effect in 1867, both Germany and Italy were divided into many smaller states; France was in the latter stages of the second Empire under Napoleon's carnival nephew; Japan was in medieval isolation; China was in shambles; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Burma were governed by the British; and the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Romanov dynasties ruled almost all of the rest of the Eurasian landmass. Africa had been carved up between the European powers, Australia and New Zealand were still colonies, and Latin America was a congeries of despotisms. ---More...