'The government' refers to something different in the US than in (most of?) Europe. My American friends were mightily amused and amazed when Belgium spent >500

'The government' refers to something different in the US than in (most of?) Europe. My American friends were mightily amused and amazed when Belgium spent >500 days without government a couple of years ago, but of course they were interpreting the word in a much more encompassing way than it is done in Belgium. 'The goverment' is really just a couple of dozen people (with perhaps a couple of dozen assistants each).