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The judge in Catalonia doesn't mind what it seems to you or anyone: her job is to interpret and apply the law. As the Supreme Court did, e.g., when they sent a
by euyyn 9y ago
The judge in Catalonia doesn't mind what it seems to you or anyone: her job is to interpret and apply the law. As the Supreme Court did, e.g., when they sent a Ministro del Interior to prison.
The law isn't written by the Spanish government either, it's written by Congress. A Congress in which nationalistic parties have more representation per number of voters than other parties with a higher number of total voters.
Insinuations that the judges in Catalonia are puppets of the Spanish government ignore the reality of Spain.
- ChristianBundy 9y agoAre you implying that Congress isn't part of the Spanish government?
- ringaroundthetx 9y agodon't reply to that
- euyyn 9y agoOh my god of course it's not, unless by government you mean something broader than the executive branch, in which case you have to include the judiciary too. The three separate powers is the foundation of western democracies.
- roywiggins 9y agoThis is a US/Euro nomenclature difference I think. In the US "the government" refers to the entire apparatus- all three branches.
- cucuuc 9y agoNo, it doesn’t. It refers to the executive. Whenever we complain about the poor quality of government, (the VA, DMV,) we’re complaining about an organ of the executive (be it federal, state or municipal). In fact the word govern implies executive.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoIn the US, "the government" refers to all three branches. When we complain about the poor quality of government, we're frequently talking about Congress, too.
- shaftoe 9y agoAnd don't forget the buearacrats and government employees. They're certainly lumped in there because they're party of the giant apparatus. I'm curious now what Europeans call them.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoEr, not in the US. E.G. "those government fat cats in Washington" is more likely to mean the Congress (or at least the Congressmen you don't like) than anything else.
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y agoI think the US equivalent of the European sense of “government” is “administration”, perhaps?
- julien_c 9y agoYes.
- occamrazor 9y agoI would say “the executive branch”
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y agoI think that's correct in an academic sense. But in the day-to-day usage, I think Obama's “this administration” lined up pretty well with Cameron's “this government”.
- roywiggins 9y agoThe agencies in the executive branch are 99% civil service people, not political appointees, and they don't change over every four years. The administration is the President, the cabinet, and political appointees, so I think that's the equivalent term.
- dragonwriter 9y agoThe thing that changes in a change of "government" isn't the whole executive branch -- most parliamentary systems have a well-developed permanent civil service. What changes are the PM, cabinet, and some subordinate political rather than civil service officers. That's pretty much a precise parallel to a U.S. "administration", not the whole of the executive branch.
- dragonwriter 9y agoYes, a U.S. "administration" is the closest analogy to a "government" in the sense usually used in reference to parliamentary systems when talking about a particular leader's government or a change of government, as opposed to the government of the country ("Europe" is sort of beside the point here, as its more about form of government than geographic location.)
- baddox 9y agoIn fact, it’s called the three branches of government. I’m sure what other word would go after “of.”
- umanwizard 9y agoIt's called that in the US. We're talking about Europe.
- baddox 9y agoMost of those countries have roughly the same three branches, don’t they?
- roywiggins 9y agoRoughly, but the nomenclature is different. It's kind of the opposite of metonymy, it's using the more general word ("government") to refer to the more specific thing (the current set of politicians in power).
- simias 9y agoI think the distinction stems from the fact that in France for instance if I want to refer to all three branches I say "l'État", but obviously in the USA "the state" is something different. "Le gouvernement" is only the président and his ministres.
- roywiggins 9y agoIn parliamentary democracies "the government" often refers to the current administration in power. "The current government" means "the current PM and their cabinet". So "the government" tends to mean only the politicians at the top of the executive branch.
- flexie 9y agoIt most certainly isn't, not in Spain, nor in the US or most other democracies. Separation of powers: - Legislative (parliament, congress, senate, house of ..., many names - in Spain I think they call it Cortes Generales and it consists of two chambers, a senate and a congress) - Executive (government) - Judicial (courts)
- lsaferite 9y agoThis is wrong for the US, but I don't know the Spanish government structure enough to weigh in there. The US Government is split into three branches, like you mentioned (Legislative, Executive, Judicial). Those three branches are the government. You are erroneously equating government to mean exclusively the executive branch of the government though.