Constitutional Role
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' constitution is made up of a variety of statutes and conventions that are either British or Vincentian in origin, and together give Saint Vincent and the Grenadines a parliamentary system of government wherein the role of the Queen is both legal and practical. The Crown is regarded as a corporation, with the sovereign, vested as she is with all powers of state, as the centre of a construct in which the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority. Though her authority stems from the people, all Vincentians live under the authority of the monarch. The vast powers that belong to the Crown are collectively known as the Royal Prerogative, the exercise of which does not require parliamentary approval, though it is not unlimited; for example, the monarch does not have the prerogative to impose and collect new taxes without the authorization of an Act of Parliament. Also, per convention, the sovereign reigns according to Vincentian law; this is illustrated in the sovereign's Coronation Oath, wherein he or she promises to govern her peoples "according to their respective laws and customs."
The Crown also sits at the pinnacle of the Royal Saint Vincent Police Force. All new recruits into the force must swear allegiance to the monarch as the embodiment of the state and its authority, the oath including the words: "I, do swear that I will well and truly serve Our Sovereign Lady the Queen as a member of the Police Force in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines without favour or affection, malice or ill will; and that I will cause Her Majesty's Peace to be preserved..."
Read more about this topic: Monarchy Of Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
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“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
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