In American English (notably distinct in this respect from British English), the term "government" means all state organs; for example, we would consider the Supreme Court to be part of the Federal Government. So the term includes what would in many other countries be called the government, the parliament, the civil service, the judiciary, etc.
Not sure where the above poster is from, but some parts of the world use a different definition for "government" than other parts of the world. In the USA, for example, all three separate branches of "government" (Legislature, Executive, and Judicial) are considered "the government".
I'm French. In french "gouvernement" (french word for "government") only refers to the executive branch, and our justice system is strongly attached to its independence from the two other branches. So it seems strange to me to conflate all three branches together.
Interestingly, in the French wikipedia page for "gouvernement" [1], there is this paragraph :
Différence avec le terme anglais
En anglais, le mot « government » s'applique non seulement au gouvernement au sens où on l'entend en français, mais aussi aux collectivités territoriales et aux administrations publiques, aussi bien centrales que locales. Le concept le plus proche en français est donc celui de collectivité publique, qui englobe les institutions politiques qui incarnent directement les pouvoirs législatif, exécutif et judiciaire, ainsi que l'ensemble des administrations qui leur sont rattachées.
Which can be loosely translated as :
Difference with the english term
In English, the word "government" includes not only the executive governement like in French, but also all local and global public administrations. The closest concept in french is therefore "collectivité publique" which encompasses institutions for all Legislative, Executive, Judiciary powers, as well as all administrations under their authorities.
Thanks for sharing. I learned something too. What’s interesting to me is that, at least in America, we associate the judicial as government because we consider ourselves a “land of law” and the judicial has the responsibility of determining if the laws that “govern” how we can act have been used appropriately or if they violate our constitutional rights. As a French citizen, do you not feel governed by the laws which your courts oversee? Maybe this is purely a difference in language but it’s very fascinating to me.
I would have trouble talking about the difference between American and French views of the law, or even speaking for all French people for that matter.
What I can say is that personally, I definitely think I live in a country ruled by law. However separation of powers means there is no single entity exercising total control on this law: the executive branch proposes changes to the law, the legislative ratifies these changes (or not), and the judiciary branch is an arbiter of what happens when the existing law meets real life situations. While the limits between the executive and legislative branches can sometimes feel porous (especially when executive and legislative are controlled by a single political party, as is the case in both France and USA at the moment), the judiciary branch always felt more insular to me from the two others, at least in my country.
Another linguistic nuance to think about: in French, we are "ruled by law " but not "governed by law". In French, "gouverner" (to govern) is something that people do, not laws.
This is a bit of a brain dump, sorry. I wish I would have more definitive answers for you.
In the US right now, the legislative branch is actually split between the two major parties- the Republicans control the Senate, but the Democrats control the House of Representatives. Any new laws have to be approved by both sides of the legislature.
As a side note the French equivalent of "land of law" is "État de droit" (i.e. "State of law").
The difference here being that Americans perhaps prefer to refer to their country as land (in this case "of law", but on other occasions, "of opportunity", "of the free" and so on...) whereas the French would rather embrace the idea of the (welfare) state.
The former's legal system is one of common law (precedent based) whereas the latter is one of civil law (statute based).
Regardless -- the judicial in France has that same responsibility of ensuring the governing laws conform with the constitutional rights (via the Conseil Constitutionnel)
The difference though with the word government/gouvernement is probably, I agree, only one in language. Or what we would call in French "faux amis", or in English, "false friends" :)
I'm American too (and not the French person you were responding to). IMO it's just an accidental quirk of language. Laws are just as important in other developed nations too.
Most people consider the legal system (i refuse to call any state run court a justice system) part of the government, it is the enforcement arm of the government
Executive, Legislative, Judicial, are the 3 general area's of a functioning government
Dividing state organs into those particular three "branches of government" is, as far as I can tell, specific to US culture. Other countries divide things up in different ways.
Most modern democracies do have an elected legislature, a legal system, an executive authority (whether it be an elected president or a parliamentary-style cabinet), and a career civil service (i.e., what in the US would just be called non-political-appointees in the Executive Branch), but the terms they use for these can differ, as can the exact nature of the separation of powers between them.
So you dismiss my assertion, then proceed to prove my point
All modern functioning governments have the same 3 basic struture
These are all part of the government. My point says nothing about how the separation of powers between those government branches function, just that they exist and are all "government"
I am not sure how anyone can claim the court system of a nation is not part of "the government" which was the comment I replied to
This is a justice decision. The government has nothing to do with it.