Colloquially when Americans say “government” they are referring to the entire state, including not just elected officials but professional civil servants, police, courts, intelligence agencies, etc.
You have definitely not had 67 different governments since 1946 in the sense that I think was meant.
This becomes beyond confusing, impressive, when you realize that 'Minister' is an expression for "servant" (cpr. "civil servant" etc.) as a derivation from 'minus' - 'Minister' is the opposite of 'Master' ('Ma[gi]ster')!)
I've studied English, not American.
So government to me means means "the group of people who officially control a country", like in this BBC headline "Netanyahu out as new Israeli government approved".
We definitely had 67 governments.
Or 67 cabinets, if you prefer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_Ita...
If you're using the same kind of terminology, the federal US has had probably 117 governments, as this is the 117th Congress. However, we as Americans don't necessarily consider this a "new government", in that many of the institutions aren't radically different. We still have the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, we still have the FBI, we still have the CIA, we still have the Social Security Administration, we still have the NTSB, we still have the FAA, etc. For Americans, the institutions are a massive part of the identity of "the Federal government", and unless all the institutions change its pretty much seen as a continuous government.
Its definitely a messy turn of phrase which means different things in different contexts. Either way, while Italy has had 67 cabinets/governments, I imagine a lot of institutions have stayed the same. The ability for abuse is based in the institutions, the will to abuse is often with the politicians. So its not like a "new government" woudl somehow wipe clean all the record collections and ability for the State to act on it, you just have different people telling people to pull the levers a little different every few years.
So it's the combination of PM (Mario Draghi right now) and Ministers, appointed by the head of State (that is now Sergio Mattarella)
We had 67 of them in 75 years.
Regardless, if debating in good faith you should respond to what people clearly mean, not to what you feel the words they’re using should mean in “correct” English.
> Or 67 cabinets, if you prefer.
Absolutely nobody is disputing this. The Wikipedia link is unnecessary.
you're wrong: I never said I was using the correct English, I said that in the English that I have studied it is called a government.
It's called government here too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Italy#Executive_...
I'm not making up words. If in America it means something different it's irrelevant, we're not talking about America.
> Absolutely nobody is disputing this. The Wikipedia link is unnecessary.
Reptetita iuvant.
Anyway, somebody was disputing this
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31353588
You have definitely not had 67 different governments since 1946
> You have definitely not had 67 different governments since 1946 in the sense that I think was meant.
You are engaging in bad-faith pedantry, and this discussion is now a waste of time.
I cut the irrelevant part, I always assume people say things that represent "what they understood or meant".
In that case the original post saying " you haven't had 67 governments in the way I mean" is completely useless, irrelevant, pedantic and in the end brought us to this conversation
Nobody cares what "government" means to an american when the context is not America.
Believe it or not, USA is only a tiny fraction of the World population and that tony fraction is in a good part not American too.
What Americans think, believe or mean is irrelevant to 95.75% of the Planet.
Didn't know it wasn't used like that in Italy.
Please read the comment more carefully. I'm saying about what I am personally aware, not a universal truth.
Remember the Servers: "Strict in formulating the output, loose in interpreting the input".
Very consistently, when anyone (including Americans) talks about parliamentary systems, the number of governments or changes of government refer to the same thing as the number of administrations or change of administration when referring to the US system of government.
There are other contexts where there might be ambiguity, but this is one of them.
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.