First of all, I really disagree — what you say is at most true for the minority of Americans who follow foreign news or have lived abroad. I honestly think if y

First of all, I really disagree — what you say is at most true for the minority of Americans who follow foreign news or have lived abroad. I honestly think if you told my dad “Italy’s government has collapsed” he would think there had been some kind of major catastrophe like a civil war. Anyway, even if you’re right, it doesn’t matter. Nobody was talking about parliamentary systems or Italy specifically when the person who kicked off this thread warned about “the government” having too much power. It’s absolutely obvious to me that they meant “the state” and were misinterpreted by people who thought the word was being used in its parliamentary sense.