History Headscratchers / HarryPotterGovernment

*** The Prime Minister definitely knows about the wizarding world. Do you really believe that he/she just takes it with a shrug and agrees to stay out of their way? If there's anything you need to know about government, it's that for every leaked black-ops project or scandal that comes to light, there are a thousand more secret programs that the people really don't want to know about. There would be something seriously wrong with the Prime Minister if he/she didn't have SOME sort of contingency in case the wizarding world decided to go nuts.
*** Another issue that people probably haven't noticed: there are some aspects of Muggle life that actually COULD be improved if the Statute of Secrecy were repealed. For example, wizards are able to travel by appearing and using portkeys. If muggles could do that, it would totally revolutionize transportation, and maybe even put an end to global warming from fossil fuel consumption!
*** According to Pottermore and some other sources apart from the most fanatical anti-muggle ones, most wizards agree that muggles beat wizards on means of transportation as they find things like cars and trains more suitable and confortable. Broomsticks were never thought for long-term travel, probably not capable of interoceanic travel either and portkeys are incredibly dangerous, so there's no logic into sharing that with humans if wizards think --correct or not-- that muggles already have better transportation systems.

*** Recruiting Muggle soldiers or police who are related to Muggleborns into a 'Hogwarts Guard' military/security unit would render the unit susceptible to government corruptions not unlike the ones created by pure-blood crony-ism and nepotism. Despite the Ministry of Magic's extensive corruption, as a whole, they had not yet engaged in widespread crony-ism or nepotism, aside from the Death Eaters regime. Even those who are open-minded might assume all pure-bloods are Death Eaters when they are briefed about the latter. The resulting anti-pure-blood prejudice and brutality by the Guards, alongside Muggle corruptions, would be excellent recruiting sergeants for the Death Eaters.
*** When people say that the Ministry of Magic has "extensive corruption", from where it takes such notion? I'm curious because I see it mentioned often, what exactly represents corruption or what example of corruption can they bring up that has ever seen on pages?

** Have you any idea how many videos are in Youtube about “real mermaid caught on camera” “flying witch caught on camera” “real alien caught on camera” and the like? We generally disregard them as fake, some people believe they are true (and is not the majority), as far as we know real life Masquerade was already broken by the internet and no one believes it.

* This is related to the wizard world bubble above. I can kind of understand them not wanting to do much with Muggles (the oldest wizards probably had grandparents who the Muggles tried to burn as witches), although it still seems very odd. What is even worse is that the wizards form their own bubble within the magical world, and English wizards form one within that. House Elves, for an example, would be more powerful then wizards if they had a wand. Yet no one seems to actually use them for the purpose of fighting. Centaurs will have as much to suffer under Voldemort as anyone, yet don't do anything until the last battle (for that matter, why don't centaurs interact with Muggles?). Apparently, the order of the Phoenix can't call upon any foreign powers for assistance. The wizarding population doesn't even consider the needs of giants and Dementors (they do care enough to stop Muggles from employing giants). And from what I understand, any modern Muggle battleforce could have slaughtered an army of wizards. And here I was hoping for an enormous team-up in the last book (Death Eaters+giants+Dementors+some goblins+some foreign powers vs order of the phoenix+centaurs+some goblins+UK military+freed house elves.

* Not really something that bugs me, but something I kept thinking about: The books take place in the nineties, but now it is 2010 and [[TechnologyMarchesOn the world has changed a little bit]]. Cities like London are riddled with [=CCTV=] surveillance cameras, and Joe Average carries a cellphone that can not only take pictures and videos but also post them on the internet in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, we have seen wizards depicted as being utterly ignorant to the most basic muggle inventions. Put those two factors together and wizards will have a really hard time to uphold TheMasquerade. Or are there plausible ways to prevent that?

** It's also pointed out several times that magic screws with technology. Those cameras might simply not work to see wizards or record them in a meaningful way. Besides, if anything would break that masquerade, it's the Knight Bus banging all over England making ''buildings'' jump out of the way. If that didn't do it, some kid's Nokia cell won't.

** What I would want to know in relation to this is how Hogwarts deals with all the pissed 11-year-old muggle-borns who are suddenly stranded without their cellphones and thus can't mail their friends and family on a regular basis anymore. Or are unable to use computers for google and stuff. For kids who grew up in the quick-paced, technology centred world we live in today, the wizarding world would be frustratingly slow...
** I think the vast majority of them would be so awed by the fact they are ''learning actual factual magic'' that they wouldn't be much bothered by the lack of cell phones and internet access. And the few who would complain would be slapped down by the rest. "Dude, shut up! You keep complaining about your stupid cell phone and we're going to get thrown out of class ''and I don't want to miss the lesson on [[{{Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail}} how to turn someone into a newt]]!'' So cut that shit out!"

** I'm of the opinion that Muggle Studies was not a subject during Arthur's time at Hogwarts, or he would know about certain technologies and trinkets a lot better. The Ministry doesn't offer postgraduate NEWT or OWL-level equivalent courses he could have taken to educate himself for the same reason. As the department grows, it does start to hire Hogwarts graduates with appropriate qualifications in the subject, but it takes a while for their accumulated knowledge to filter up to Arthur. As regards pronunciations, proper enuciations of spells is one thing, but that's because professors drill it into them. Some muggle words may be difficult for them to conceptualise; e.g. does mechanic have a "eck" sound or a "chuh" sound? Where Arthur says "eclecticity" instead of electricity, maybe he's dyslexic. Where he says "firelegs" instead of "firearms", he's just not paying too much attention to the inferred root meaning of the word. But he has a keen interest otherwise.

** Arthur's car had a '''defective''' invisible spell and was seen by a dozen Humans. Ministry sent out a squad of Aurors to mind-rape (Obliviate) the Witnesses. Arthur was fined G50, I assume G20 paid for the clean-up squad and G30 was punishment. When the Twins used the car to rescue Harry, the invisible spell worked and there was no punishment.

* The HP wiki has entries which say things to the effect of "most of the dementors of Azkaban revolted and joined Voldemort". Which is to imply that a minority didn't. Is this actually supported by the canon? And if so, what caused the minority to remain at Azkaban in loyalty to their Ministry "employers"?

** Yes, having separate wizarding communities in such small countries as Andorra and Liechtenstein (just check how tiny their Muggle population is) is a strong argument that for some reason wizarding governments cover the same or roughly the same borders as Muggle ones. Maybe Britain DOES stand out in the level of mutial isolation between wizards and Muggles...

** "...highly immoral" as opposed to feeding them to soul-eating demons who would basically do the same thing - wipe out their memories and identities, except slowly and in the most excruciatingly torturous way possible, leading to madness and death? "...they both view Muggles with disdain and a sort of racism" - so much for "sober realizations about human behavior" then, isn't it?

* What exactly constitutes a 'misuse of Muggle artifacts'? Enchanted brooms seem to be okay, because it is tradition, yet flying carpets are forbidden because carpets are Muggle artefacts. Ministry cars are enchanted to be TARDIS-like, but that's okay, and the Knight bus is a freakin' purple triple-decker bus that zigzags through streets full of Muggle cars, but that seems to be okay, too. On the other hand, Mr Weasley faced an inquiry because of his enchanted Ford Anglia. So, somehow it seems to be a bit random what 'Muggle artefact' can be legally enchanted, and when such an enchantment becomes illegal. The only explanation this Troper could come up so far is 'politics'.

** Um. This troper doesn't think flying carpets are illegal. IMPORTING them is. Perhaps Britain wants to keep a monopoly?

** Inconsistency in government regulation is TruthInTelevision. Example: Drugs. Marijuana is illegal in all 50 American states (edit: well, not any more), yet alcohol and tobacco are not. Another example: This troper once read an article about a UK law that would ban beer over a certain alcohol content, yet that content was actually lower than the alcohol content of absinthe, which is not banned in Britain.

** This troper believes that the issue of carpets and brooms is trackability. Broomsticks and ordinary brooms look very distinctive, and to a wizard eye, it is easy to spot the difference. Carpets, on the other hand, are not as easy to tell apart if they are enchanted. Just a thought.

[[folder:England's allies]]

* Where were England's traditional allies during the War? Voldemort qualifies as a rebellion, shouldn't the Ministries of the US and France and the rest of Muggle England's allies be helping England's Ministry of Magic? In fact, the countries that Magical Britain seems to have diplomatic relations with all seem to be Eastern European countries (like Bulgaria) or small countries (Andora). Sure, Britain plays Quidditch with places like Uganda and such, but the West is pretty much never mentioned. Wizarding Britain must have done something to damage relations with them.
** FridgeHorror. That's what Voldy was up to in book five. Britain's the last unconquered Wizard Government left. Alternatively, those countries ''are'' helping, but a) they don't correspond in size, for whatever reason, to the Muggle countries they represent, and/or b) they just aren't doing much good.
** Maybe the other countries don't have a pureblood supremacy movement, and Britain is the backwards, underdeveloped country that's having a civil war.
** I see this one as the most likely case. The other (magical) societies see Britain as some third-world country having an internal conflict. Like Syria today. No real need to step in unless the country had valuable resources or the conflict went past the borders. It's clearly behind other countries in terms of social development. I mean, France has a half-giant as a headmistress of their premiere school of magic and a part-veela girl as their best representative, while Britain still has plenty of racism against full-blooded humans. Mixed-race people wouldn't have a chance.
** I second that. Wizarding Britain seems to be somewhat Victorian in its attitudes, so the Americans are probably seen as 'uncivilized colonials' and real-world relations with France have been somewhat frosty in the past. Additionally, there wasn't much time for the English wizarding government to call for help: Fudge refused to acknowledge Voldemort's return and was occupied with discrediting Dumbledore and Harry. Scrimgeour was in office for about a year before Voldemort took over the ministry. Then there's the matter of pride ("We can solve our problems by ourselves!").

** SarcasmMode: If the Wizarding US are like the Muggle US, it could have been plausible for the US Wizard Government to order an invasion of Wizarding Britain during Book Seven, to eliminate the 'Dark Lord Threat' before it spreads to other parts of the world. (*Thinking* This sounds like a viable PlotBunny for a seventh year FanFic...)
** This American Troper finds this offensive. Our country would never interfere with Britain's affairs! [[SelfDeprecation They aren't one of our main sources for imported oil.]]

** This troper doesn't recall anything in the 7th book indicating that Voldemort's rebellion had spread beyond the UK. In fact, this troper doesn't recall anything to indicate that the outside world even ''knew'' Voldemort was back. The Ministry warned the Muggle UK Prime Minister, but apart from that, it doesn't seem like they told anybody. And after Voldemort took over, he certainly wouldn't want the French or US wizard governments knowing about it, just in case they did decide to invade.

** Tyrants coming to power in a single state and the coup being given only bureaucratic attention by governments elsewhere unfortunately is TruthInTelevision. It's actually one of the most realistic thing about the last book. Far worse things have been done in the real world than what Voldemort was doing to England and its Muggles, Muggle-borns etc.
** Voldemort is a British citizen, other countries will be at least reluctant to intervene in a internal conflict. The real life analogy will be like having Hindemburg asking Britain to please help them kill Hitler (or Obama asking Canada to kill Trump, [[HistoryRepeats time will tell).]]

** This Troper always thought that "We don't want the Muggles to bother us with their problems" was the bowdlerized version they tell to kids. If the Muggle world would realized the existence of magic, no wizard would be safe any more: Witch-Hunts, Mengele-like experiments on wizards in government labs, etc. (Just compare the treatment of mutants in X-Men)

** This Troper would point out that for all appearances, Obliviate can both remove and/or, as is stated by multiple wizards many times, ''modify'' memories, not just rip them out of your mind, so essentially you just forget something like happens naturally, or remember something different then what happened. It seems it's only when you ''overuse/overdo'' it that it can harm someone, like with Bertha Jorkins or Lockhart. On that note, why they probably don't is because as Voldemort says when Pettigrew tries to say they could have modified Bertha's memory instead of kill her, he points out that the level of torture he subjected her to ''broke'' the Memory Charm, and Dumbledore, with extensive Legilimency, was able to extract the real memories that Riddle had replaced in Hokey the House-Elf and Morfin's heads with false ones. All it would take is one magical accident, or a dedicated ally of the Dark Side, and BAM, the exact issue that comes up with HeelFaceBrainwashing if it were to wear off-Namely, angry Death Eaters who can use their new BeneathSuspicion position to murder and torture more people, or possible [[HeelFaceTurn newly changed]] Death Eaters in an emotional dilemma and a bad position from their new and old allies, and so on. An argument could be made to try it anyway, but it would be a long ethical and political discussion that I doubt JK Rowling wanted to go into, and few readers would want to read about if it was given any amount of significance over the action, heartwarming and tearjerking moments that are actually in the series. Also, Hermione actually just altered her parents memories, and only erased herself, so she basically just resituated them memory-wise on who they were slightly and removed the memories that they had a daughter. A large change, but likely Hermione extensively prepared to get it right without hurting them, and it didn't change litereally everything about who they are that we know of.

** The Ministry has been established as being incompetent at its best and horribly corrupt at its worst during Harry's time - maybe the Dementor's Kiss is their way of sort of brushing people they don't like under the rug, without having to outright kill them, in order to avoid bad publicity. (Since this troper has heard that the death penalty isn't generally accepted in Britain.) Also, is it mentioned how many people do receive the kiss? Sirius only did so because he was thought to be a madman who'd escaped from prison, and Barty Crouch was ''intentionally'' silenced by the Ministry so he wouldn't squeal to them about Voldemort. It could be that they don't use it often enough for there to be much of a public outcry.

** Oh it adheres to the principle, [[Series/YesMinister just not the practice]]. As with a lot of Potter-verse stuff it is an exaggeration (and sadly just a mild exaggeration at that) of 1970s and 1980s UK civil service practices. Its a rough takeoff of the Birmingham Six or Guildford Four as well as [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement numerous much more recent unnamed cases]].

*** Recruiting Muggle soldiers or police who are related to Muggleborns into a 'Hogwarts Guard' military/security unit would render the unit susceptible to government corruptions [[NotSoDifferent not unlike the ones created by pure-blood crony-ism and nepotism]]. Despite the Ministry of Magic's extensive corruption, as a whole, they had not yet engaged in widespread crony-ism or nepotism, aside from the Death Eaters regime. Even those who are open-minded might assume all pure-bloods are Death Eaters when they are briefed about the latter. The resulting anti-pure-blood prejudice and brutality by the Guards, alongside Muggle corruptions, would be excellent recruiting sergeants for the Death Eaters.

*** Speaking of intent, Romilda Vane clearly intended to commit DateRape. Judging from Ron's reaction to the spiked cookies that is a big deal.[[/folder]]

** Considering the elves: There are only two freed elves that we know of (Dobby and Winky), and the others are servants/slaves of the families that own them. Keeping the the general opinion on house elves in mind, it would have been like having your cook, maid, or gardener go into battle. (And no, not [[Film/UnderSiege that Cook]])

** Believe me when I say people under oppressive regimes are are reluctant to rise due to many reasons other than weapons. I come from one. Yet we call ourselves a democracy. We have known child rapists and murderers in the government. They manipulate and intimidate law and court system. But people are used to it. Most people hate them. But it doesn't make anyone stand up against them because they don't want to be adversely affected, and they aren't sure that even if they do stand up, others will rise up with them to get rid of the oppressors. The government controls the state media. Half the population believes the lies they spout out. Some people support the regime because they and their families benefit from it. People are scared of more things than outright death. People fear losing jobs or not getting a good one. We fear other subtle retribution. They don't want to risk our families. It is harder to stand up against a regime which makes a mockery out of democracy than an outright killing rampage. In short, wizarding community is totally believable to me. I see it every day. If I had a gun, I won't use it one the random chance of getting past their security. They, after all, control the the security forces of the country. Even if I do manage to kill one, it's effectively the ruin of my family. Rowling's representation of wizards is very accurate as I see. But I do get that most people from places without that sort of thing will not get that mentality.

*** Filch is combination of LawfulNewtral and TokenEvilTeammate. He seems to be loyal to whoever runs the school, however Filch's devotion for Umbridge is more on a personal level, he hates children, chaos, disorder and filth, and Umbridge brought order, control discipline and punishment, all the things he ''loves''. If Umbridge methods were cruel is not of his concern. That is very different than siding with the blood supremacist terrorists. Is like the difference between been loyal to Margaret Thatcher and the Nazis, or to the Saudi Arabian regime and Al Qaeda, or in other words EvenEvilHasStandards. So whether squibs are mistreated under Voldy's is impossible to know by Filch's actions, however what we do can have some guess is how the Black family treated them, and they were seem as a big shame and a disgrace according to Sirius. Of course we don't know if the Black family's view was that of the DE but is indicative.

Clearly, there is a magical government (not always call “ministry”) in most of the “normal” countries, those that have their borders well defined and recognized by the international community. This is canon. So or Germany always had the same ministry and the division was saw as “a muggle thing” or they did have two different ministries and they follow the reunification as the rest of the country. Places like India and Pakistan are probably harder to explain if wizards do not abide by muggles' division of borders. Now the real headscratcher will be cases like really really complicated border’s dispute and state’s sovereignties, can you imagine a case like Israel and Palestine? Ditto to North and South Korea, how whould a Korean wizard goverment work, or a case like North and south Vietnam.

* If each country's Ministry of Magic (or whatever they call it) is responsible for hiding magical creatures within its jurisdiction, who's responsible for hiding sea serpents, or other critters that are found in international waters?

* The whole statute of secrecy kind of bugs me, since not only do wizards hide themselves from Muggles, they also hide all magical creatures, which defies us all access to potion materials. Basically, Wizards aren't just hiding, they stop Muggles from ever getting access to any magic.

** [[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2006/0801-radiocityreading1.html JKR once said that if a Muggle picked up a wand, they wouldn't be able to use it properly, and that they couldn't brew a potion (despite Potions being "the most Muggle-friendly subject")]], which basically explains the need for a Statute of Secrecy. But, as noted elsewhere on this page, the Wizarding World is very traditionalist (many times to the point of stupidity), so it could be a bunch of antiquated anti-Muggle sentiment keeping it from being at least re-written.
** That article explains a lot, although it is quite vague, as if the author hadn't decided yet.

** The X-Men scenario is one option, but it's also possible that the reveal of magical CREATURES such as dragons, goblins, or giants would create a different scenario, wherein the muggle population became aware of creatures they did not know to exist before (something that might not be as negative an impact as a human of greater power). As for wizards themselves being revealed, it's possible that would cause an X-Men like scenario, but it's also possible they would be immediately associated with the current (real-world) use of 'witchcraft', which almost unerringly is applied to Wicca and other pagan religions. It's not UN-likely that the first impulse would be to lump witches and wizards in with Wiccans, and that people who stuck their hands up later and said 'no, we really CAN do REAL magic' would be identified as delusional or attention-seeking, and that the wizard world would be treated much as it has been - as something that isn't realistic or doesn't exist. The fact of the matter is that in order for witch-hunts the like of what we saw in Salem to even be possible, most people would have to be strictly Christian and to take 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' as a direct command from God. Even now, most Christian sects do not take this stance toward other religions. The reason it is more plausible in the X-Men is because the majority belief now is in evolution, which is fueled by natural mutation like what the X-Men display, and as such there would be more easily manipulated convictions based in science than there would be based in religion. Evangelical Christians are the most vocal, but not the most numerous individuals out there, and would be the most likely nemesis of real witches and wizards.
** Let's be honest. The real reason nobody persecutes Wiccans is because ''no one believes their ridiculous claims about knowing magic spells''. If Muggles were made aware of REAL magic, the response would be quite different. After all, the reason the Bible considers witchcraft sinful and immoral is because of ''what it can do'', not just because it is allegedly a product of a pact with Satan. If magic were real, society would be utterly unable to tolerate it. How do you live next to a person you know could make your house burst into flame with a word? How do you deal with people who can read and control minds at will and without any physical trace that they've done so? You can't. The only rational response is to either wipe them out or forcibly segregate them from the rest of society (and by "segregate" I mean "move them to another continent", not "put them in a ghetto").

** Hell, Muggle society can barely even stand different races that are no different from each other without devolving into genocide. Imagine what racism would be like if that other race actually had innate powers that could threaten the safety of your property and life and was so easy that a simple word and wave of an innocuous stick could perform it? Even a young child has access to magic that can seriously injure someone; imagine a moody teenager [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince delivering a Sectumsempra on a bully, perhaps?]] And the aforementioned attempts to figure out how wizards "tick", which takes very little to go straight to unscrupulous governments kidnapping and performing painful torture and gruesome experiments on witches and wizards. We've already seen how Squibs can be moody due to being part of magical society without having any magical ability. What would happen if that resentment and jealousy ended up being applied to the 99.9% of the population that had no magic? I guarantee that within less than a year you'd have news stories of nutbags draining wizards of their blood or disemboweling them to consume their innards to try and gain magic (and even worse, actual government experiments on that exact thing). Conflict between wizards and Muggles brings in added fear that the magical people will use their strange and seemingly unlimited powers to cast horrible things (even schoolchildren in Hogwarts are seen causing [[{{Squick}} bats to fly out of people's noses]] or instantly paralyzing them as part of simple childhood fights that Muggles would resolve with a punch or two to the nose), which gives the impression that any Muggle would gingerly treat a wizard the same way that you'd treat an angry man who you knew was carrying a gun and willing to use it frivolously even in minor arguments. It's good fanfic fodder, but not a good ''idea''.
** You know what is written above? A comprehensive summary of the "Muggle Studies" course, taught to the students of Hogwarts by professor Carrow in the year 17 AP (Anno Potter). It is pretty much an elaboration on the briefer summary given by Neville Longbottom: "We’ve all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drive wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them". I'm not going to argue the accuracy of that viewpoint, for another thing's been bugging me. If this viewpoint is not just propaganda and vilification of non-wizes on part of Death Eaters, if it is not restricted to a few narrow-minded bigots, but it is in fact an adopted and common, if unspoken, outlook of the wizard society in general, then '''what exactly were the Death Eaters WRONG about''', and how was the "good guys" opposing them not hypocritical? If we put aside the superficial cartoonishly-evil appearance, they are simply proactive and are willing to engage the problem directly rather then beat around the bush and shortsightedly hope that the WeirdnessCensor and casual MindRape will stave the confrontation off forever, like the "good guys" do. Sure, their methods are extreme and brutal, but that's to be expected when they are in the minority and the majority, including the authorities, stubbornly persists in self-deluded denial of their rightness.

** When I read the books I never had the impression that the regular wizard/witch despise muggles or have negative feelings toward them… us… whatever… and that was one of the reasons why the Death Eaters were clearly considered extremists and hated by the main magical society. I really feel some readers have a darker perception from the books, as like all wizards except Dumbledore and the Trio are deeply anti-muggle. Yes, I thing the good wizards (see no reason for the quotes) have certain condescending attitude over muggles, but hate and hostility? I never perceive that. Anyway, I think the reason for keeping certain things in secret are a) To protect muggles from magical creatures (can you imagine what would happen if a muggle discovers a dragon or giant in a mountain?) b) To protect magical creatures from muggles (can you imagine what would happen to centaurs or goblins if their existence became public?). About keeping magical artifacts secrets that can help muggles to solve problems, as another trope said, what? No magical artifact works if in hands of muggles.
* Honestly it seems like the primary reason for the Statute of Secrecy is probably because some Wizard or another noticed the Muggles had surpassed the Wizards in terms of destructive potential. Wizards sling spells that kill instantly without fail but the original books are set in the 90's meaning that in addition to two of the most brutal conflicts any living human of either world had ever seen the Wizarding world has witnessed the advent of nuclear weaponry. For possibly the first time in history Wizards are not only on the decline but at real risk of being wiped out both from the fallout of so many families being wiped away by the recent Wizard War but because if the Muggles found them there would be a lot of uncomfortable questions about why they were left out in the rain while the Wizards enjoyed the fruits of magic without sharing. A Wizard with a wand can kill one person at a time as fast as he can say ''avadacadavra'' but muggles have guns and atom bombs which should terrify any Wizard self aware enough to realize the implications. At least in theory guns would still work in the presence of wizards and magic, they're chemical reactions are not much different then a standard potion.

** What do you mean, people who apparently don't exist? All wizards except those in Hogsmeade have Muggle neighbors. Even the Weasleys in Ottery St. Catchpole. Muggleborns and half-bloods don't drop off the face of Muggle Earth. Wizards may not mingle with their Muggle neighbors much, but an inspector looking to confirm the existence of Ron Weasley or Marvolo Gaunt would succeed in doing so. And aversion to working with Muggles? They're in contact with the Prime Minister.
** I mean people who exist on paper but have never been seen or heard from by anyone else. If a record of a person named Ron Weasley existed in a muggle database but no muggle had ever seen him, people would start to suspect some kind of fraud. And if huge volumes of records start being found of people who seem to only exist on paper, people would start to suspect a vast conspiracy. Also, you're wrong. All wizards outside of Hogsmeade ''do not'' have muggle neighbors. The Weasleys may technically be attached to a village (a fictional one, BTW) but they live way out in the boonies with not a soul around for miles. There's no indication in the books that they have any contact with muggle residents of Ottery St. Catchpole, assuming there are any. And there are undoubtedly many other "wizard only" villages similar to Hogsmeade all over the UK and around the world. As I said, wizards who are ''publicly visible'' to muggles might have some minimal paper trail in the muggle world, and that would include those who (by choice or otherwise) live amongst muggles. But there's no reason for the rest of them to appear in muggle records. It would only threaten TheMasquerade. And lastly, the only reason the Ministry of Magic stays in contact with the muggle Prime Minister is because they have to. If complete separation were possible I'm sure that's what they would do.

** Hogsmeade, it is expressely stated, is the only entirely magical village in Britain. The Weasleys do sometimes interact with the people of Ottery St. Catchpole (in one of the books, for example, Mrs. Weasley goes to the post office to use the phone and call a taxi to get everyone to King's Cross). Wizards and witches exist in muggle records: the Prime Minister knows about the baffling murders of Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance in Half-Blood Prince. However, he doesn't know how or why they were killed, and to him Madam Bones (Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement) is just "a middle aged woman who lived alone".


** Many magical universes feature some version of a "don't notice me" spell that can be cast on people or places. Why not an equivalent that can be cast such that any official record made of the person you want to hide is never noticed? The record is there on paper or in the computer all right, but every time someone reads it, the reader's eyes just end up passing over it to the next name. It would actually be better concealment to have the records present in the normal way but repelling attention than to have them absent, which might draw the attention of police, social services or immigration authorities. So yes, Ron Weasley's birth was registered in the usual way. He has a National Insurance number. But somehow people don't see his name as interesting in any search of the records. This could be a sort of reverse version of the way that mentioning Voldemort is widely believed to attract his attention; no wonder most wizards are so scared of saying Voldemort's name when most of them have relied their whole lives on a spell whereby saying or reading their name makes the person saying or reading it ''lose'' interest!

** Hagrid's answer is likely a) something he came up with on the fly, b) something he's not given a lot of thought before, and c) a drastically simplified answer given to an eleven-year-old boy who's just discovered that wizards exist. Explaining the social and political ramifications of the fall of TheMasquerade to a child (potential violent response from Muggles, social unrest, demands to access to magical artifacts for scientific study, cruelty to magical creatures/beings, etc.) when you're not that well-educated yourself is probably pretty difficult.
*** Think of the inherent bias in this excuse- "Magic is so wonderful, and muggles are helpless, and jealous of our magic!" Versus, "We're scared of muggles burning us at stake, and our magic is useless in the face of their sheer numbers and rapidly advancing technology we can have no hope of comprehending, let alone keeping up with!" Which one is the Ministry going to put out?

** The thing is, a computer isn't magic. A computer can't let you instantly cause someone to simply die with absolutely no markings or signs of death beyond "They're dead" and thus confounding all attempts to find a murderer, or let you cause excruciating pain, or let you control someone's mind with nothing but a wave of a stick and the desire to do so. A computer can't let you turn a man's face into a pufferfish, or instantly paralyze him. It can't let you con people by inventing items out of thin air and selling them before they naturally disappear. Or teleport. Or make benign objects fly or gain sentience. And what a computer does is ''known'' and ''finite.'' People who are dumb or out of touch think computers can do things that they really can't, but even then they have some idea of what limits are and aren't ridiculous. Magic? Even wizards and witches don't know everything any more than Muggles 100% understand science. To a Muggle, magic is an unknowable force that lets it user (even a small child) do amazing and terrible things. Not only would they be demanding magical solutions to common problems because "You lot can do it with just a silly word, right?" but they'd also be terrified of what someone with magic might do. As is said above, what would you feel about living next to someone who can turn your house into kindling with a muttered word, or turn you into a ferret because of a minor dispute? It would be terrifying for Muggles to try and live among a minority that has unknowable and awesome powers, and would result in tremendous fear and discrimination.
*** That's one of the problems with wizard education being limited to spells and potions; they learn to practice and memorize spells that have already been discovered, but they don't learn the skills necessary to advance, things like science, communications, creativity. If the masquerade were to be broken, I guarantee you that the first thing muggle scientists would do- after confirming that magic is real, of course- is set about figuring out why magic works the way it does, why some people can use it, and how others can protect themselves from it. In universe, of course, we don't have the answers to these questions, for a variety of reasons; Harry, the narrator, doesn't know, Wizard society hasn't advanced one iota since the 1800s, etc. But that doesn't mean the answers don't exist!
*** We don't knnow how investigation and improvement work in the Wizarding World. Even is there is a wizard counterpart for scientists most scientific investigation is done in colleges, not in high schools. The books do show that in-universe there is change in Wizard society and that potions, spells and magical artifacts are constantly changing and improving and some kinds of magic became obsolete, so there has to be some sort of experimentation among wizards for this to happen. Also, even if muggle scientists discover the existence of magic and try to find explanation on how it works, they may simply never find it as is, well, magic, and probably do not work according to phisical laws.
** You are also forgetting something; anyone can use a computer, but magic wands (and all other magical artifacts) only work with wizards. If The Masquerade falls and the existence of wizards became public knowledge Muggles still can’t use magic wands to make spells. So Hagrid’s worries are rightful; in best case scenario Muggles will request Wizards to solve their problems because there is no way they can do it themselves, worst case scenario governments will take wizards hostage and force them to do stuffs and weird experiments.\\\

** It's never really established how widespread pensieves are in this world. For all we know, Dumbledore has one because a previous Headmaster of Hogwarts created it and left it for Headmasters only. If, however, they are widespread enough for commercial use, it's entirely possible that the way veritaserum is bypassed can bypass pensive memories as well. Unbreakable Vows, on the other hand, might be really bad, as, if I remember correctly, if you break one, you die. That would be bad in the courtroom for lying about something small on accident. Unfortunately, even if phrased correctly as an oath of truth, it could probably still be bypassed by the above method of fooling veritaserum. The fact that a truth serum can be bypassed usually means there's a magical method to completely fool one's perspective of the truth. In that case, there would be no way to get the truth unless there's a way to prevent the method.

** What really gets me is that their solution to the possibility of veritaserum failure is simply to take testimony without any veritaserum. So, because there is a method of interrogation that can possibly be suborned with significant effort, it is then cast aside and instead they use... a method that can be suborned by the simple effort of opening one's mouth and lying? Refusal to use a method because it's imperfect only makes sense if the alternative is more reliable; otherwise, it might not be ideal, ''but it's still better than nothing''. As for the WordOfGod in question; in that very same paragraph, Rowling also mentions that the reason veritaserum ''did'' work on Barty Crouch was because he was 'groggy' at the time he was dosed and thus unable to perform any tricks. The solution is thus obvious; feed the interrogatee a stunner (or some type of confundus or disorienting charm, if you just want to daze them momentarily), force-feed Veritaserum, then enervate.
** Veritaserum is not better than nothing because it lends a sense of false confidence to the interogation. It is easily understood that the person being questioned may lie, but people may have a harder time accepting that if they've been dosed with veritaserum.

** Is not that I want to defend the magical government, but I don’t think the Ministry targets underage wizards living in muggles homes out of racism, they target them out of simple common sense. If they detect magic been use in a house where there is only one wizard, they obviously are going to assume that wizard did it, right? Probably if the Ministry knows that a pureblood or half-blood underage wizard is staying temporary with a squib aunt or a muggle relative and detects magic they’ll assume the same. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.

* So, if the Ministry has a special quill that records the names of all magical children in Britain at their birth, why, oh WHY, do they not bother to tell the parents of any wizard child born to Muggles that their child has magical powers ''until they are 11 freakin' years old?!'' Wouldn't it make a hell of a lot more sense and be much kinder to give those poor parents at least a few years to get used to the idea that their child is going to have super powers and be accepted into a fantastic and bizarre hidden society where they'll only be allowed to see them for 3 months a year for 7 years of their teenage life, instead of just casually dumping this life-altering and world-view shattering revelation on them all at once a mere month or two before it begins? Not to mention, how many Muggle-born wizard children do you think have been needlessly traumatized or institutionalized by people that think they're crazy because the wizard government never thought it was necessary to warn their parents that, oh hey, your kid might accidentally bend and/or break the rules of physics with magic every now and then, don't worry though, cause it's perfectly normal?

** Oh it adheres to the principle, [[Series/YesMinister just not the practice]]. As with a lot of Potter-verse stuff it is an exaggeration (and sadly just a mild exaggeration at that) of 1970s and 1980s UK civil service practices. Its a rough takeoff of the Birmingham Six or Guildford Four as well as [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement numerous much more recent unnamed cases]].

** IIRC carpets are forbiden not because they are a muggle artifact, but because there's some sort of monopoly on brooms. Flying carpets are outright said to be the most common way of transportation for wizard in the Islamic and Eastern world, is just in Britain were they are forbiden and maybe in the rest of The West (tho maybe is just that they're not traditional but not forbiden in the rest of Europe or The Americas).