Most of all, though, Britain, like other parliamentary democracies, needs a head of state in possession of reserve powers to check and balance the government.

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And like all opposition parties in all parliamentary democracies, the primary goal of its members is to bring down the government so that they can take power.

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However, recent polls have shown that many voters dislike these tactics even though all of them would be pretty standard fare in most other parliamentary democracies and Mr Koizumi's support ratings have fallen accordingly.

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