Word: figurehead
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first years on the throne, the Shah was generally considered a figurehead monarch who cared more for fast cars, fancy living and pretty women than for the tasks of kingship. That impression was reinforced by his failure to deal firmly with Premier Mossadegh during the 1950s, and by his ineffectual early struggles with the landowning "thousand families" who largely controlled his country. In 1950 he attempted unsuccessfully to force them to hand over their land to their peasants; the Shah set an example by deeding 450,000 acres of crown property to the 42,000 farmers who worked the royal...
...nola's resignation was the climax of a long-simmering struggle between the young officers of the Armed Forces Movement, the rebel group that toppled the Caetano regime, and the conservative general they had chosen as the figurehead leader of their revolution. Tension grew after Spínola made a bid last July for immediate elections, which he would almost certainly have won, thereby acquiring vastly enlarged powers. The officers rebuffed him, fearing that he was attempting to take over the revolution for himself. Lately, Spínola had begun making appeals to the "silent majority" to "awaken...
...Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired." Even worse, that concert tour was marked by the overshadowing of Stevie Winwood on organ by a part of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section and the omnipresent Rebop on bongos, congas, and other assorted skins. With Capaldi prancing about as the meaningless figurehead, one actually wondered if the Traffic known to millions had really existed...
...that they planned to summon home from Geneva Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, 57, Haile Selassie's son, and anoint him as Ethiopia's King (significantly, not Emperor). Wossen, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke that he suffered two years ago, would be nothing more than a figurehead, and the likelihood is that the country will eventually be proclaimed a republic. Meanwhile, Lieut. General Aman Michael Andom, 50, a popular officer who has been chief of staff of the armed forces, has been named temporary head of the government...
...Just a Figurehead. In its present draft form, the document allows Selassie to retain the title of Emperor, but he will serve only as "a symbol of Ethiopian unity and history." Although some of the more radical leaders of the military coup object to even a figurehead monarch, they have been persuaded, at least temporarily, that the success of their reform movement depends upon continued support among the peasant majority (95% of the country's people are illiterate), who still revere the Emperor...