MUST-401 Lessons

Hello everyone and welcome to your eighth lesson of MUST 401! Can you believe the year’s almost over? I hope you’ve been learning a lot and are ready to expand upon that knowledge today! 

This year has been about all of the ways the Muggle and magical worlds intersect, from technology to schooling to careers. But there is no better example of this interaction than the government of countries in which witches and wizards live. It is a regular occurrence for governments of countries with a significant number of magic users to know that witches and wizards exist. Individual governments deal with this knowledge in different manners, but all within the conduct set forth by the International Confederation of Wizards.

Despite the fact there are many countries and governments represented within the ICW, we will focus on the British government in today’s lesson as that is the country the majority of Hogwarts students are familiar with.

Her Majesty’s Government

The government of the United Kingdom is in a sense a hybrid. In terms of what is considered the head of state (that is, who is the face of the country), the kingdom operates under a constitutional monarchy. This means while there is a monarchy in place, that ruler must ultimately operate under the bounds of a preconceived set of rules called a Constitution -- as opposed to an absolute monarch, who could do whatever they’d like without any sort of rules. The current monarch of the United Kingdom is a man named King Charles III, who took over the position after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on September 8 2022.

Despite having the title of king, the powers he holds are surprisingly few in number. Instead, he and his family have become celebrities of a kind. King Charles's position as a figurehead is somewhat controversial; he and his family, among other routes, receive their living salary from the money of taxpayers although his role is arguably obsolete.

The actual governing is done by the head of government, which is currently operating under parliamentary democracy. You may know that democracy is a form of government in which citizens are responsible for voting on leaders and policies; a representative democracy such as parliamentary democracy is one whose citizens are technically voting on representatives who will decide on leaders and policies for them. This group of people that the citizens elect and rely on is referred to as the Parliament. There are currently 650 members of Parliament (MPs), each of whom represents an area of the country. The Parliament itself is headed by an elected official called the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister, otherwise known as the PM, is the one responsible for appointing other ministers, who are heads of various branches of government. For example, the PM would appoint the leader of the Ministry of Defence. The majority of British citizens believe that there are 21 ministries within the British government, but you and I both know of a ministry that is crucial to our everyday lives.

Ministry of Magic

The 22nd Ministry involved in the UK’s government is, of course, the Ministry of Magic. This branch of the British government succeeded the Wizard’s Council in 1707 and is responsible for governing the magical population in the country. It consists of its own various departments, many of which you've heard of in this class, as they are responsible in part for Muggle-magical relations. While the PM knows that this branch of government exists, it is fairly independent with the Minister for Magic (also known as the abbreviation MoM) is solely responsible for magical laws and enforcement. 

I want to cover two areas of note within the Ministry of Magic that we haven’t spoken much about yet. The first is the Wizengamot, which has a Muggle equivalent as well. The Wizengamot is the magical world’s highest court of law but also acts as a sort of Parliament. There are only fifty members in this group though, as opposed to Great Britain’s much larger number. The Wizengamot is a subdivision within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement but actually has existed since before the MoM was even created. 

These Wizengamot members are not elected.  They are chosen by the current Minister for Magic, but they report to their own leader: the Chief Warlock (this name is used no matter what gender the chosen person is). Interestingly, the role of Chief Warlock is more akin to the King's role as opposed to the PM’s. This isn’t to say that the Chief Warlock doesn’t do much though; instead, a major role the King plays is as an impartial advisor to the Parliament as a representative of the people. Similarly, the Chief Warlock’s duty, among other things, is to represent a non-biased view of advice to the Minister for Magic.

I’d also like to briefly touch on the Department of Mysteries. The particulars of what this ministry department does are not made known to the public and indeed aren’t even revealed to all ministry employees. Its work is top secret, dealing with classified information that would be a risk to share with the entire country. It is, in fact, a mystery. Nevertheless, it is important; the employees who work within it -- the Unspeakables -- are in charge of handling heavy topics that keep our country and wizarding world running in the way we like it. Because of its importance and secrecy, it exists nearly autonomously. Its independence means that even the Minister for Magic cannot interfere with the department very much.

Likewise, there is a branch of the British government called the Secret Intelligence Service. It is also referred to as MI6 (an initialism for Military Intelligence, Section 6). This department is responsible for protecting the country from high-level threats of terrorism or acquiring vital information for our safety. The specifics of what they learn and deal with are incredibly secret, however. After all, it is a department that has existed since 1909 but only became officially acknowledged in 1994. It is similar to the Department of Mysteries in that both the wizarding government and the Muggle government feel the need to keep some knowledge away from the public, only to be dealt with the utmost caution and secrecy.

Minister v. Minister

You may be curious to know then how these two different governments can exist and co-operate with each other to keep Great Britain as peaceful as can be. The most important interaction the leaders of the British government and the Ministry of Magic ever have is their first introduction. This is the point in time in which the Minister for Magic will inform the PM that in fact witches and wizards do exist and reveal the secret 22nd Ministry within the British government. This nearly always takes place on the night of the PM’s election. Only after the Muggle Minister has officially been chosen does the magical Minister present him or herself. This is to keep the worlds separate for as long as possible. 

Even after the two ministers have introduced themselves, it is understood that the MoM will exist on its own without Muggle interference. This is to make things as seamless as possible. Of course, the new Muggle Minister will have enough things to deal with besides wrapping their head around a secret world they didn’t know existed until that night! Truly the only other time the ministers will interact again is if the two worlds together are in danger. Generally, this means that there is some sort of crisis going on that would influence both the magical world and the mundane one. The most obvious example of this is war. If either world is going to war, it would inevitably affect the other. As such, the two ministers will meet to share this information as well as possibly devise a strategy to maintain everyone’s safety and the mandatory segregation.

And that is all I have for today! I have a quiz for you all, but otherwise, I’d like you all to use this time to focus on studying. We will have our final for the year next week and I trust you’ll all come prepared. Make sure to re-read the lessons and your notes carefully and then you’ll find the exam not to be any trouble.

‘Til next time!

Anna Soleil

Sources:

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