Talk:Government

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Untitled[change source]

"An aristocracy is a government by the best people." While etymologically correct, this is extremely misleading and biased. I suggest it be changed. i have a problem with the sugeston that laws ARE BASED ON THE TEN COMMANDMENT tHIS IS OVERLOOKINg SECULERISM AS A BASIS FOR LAW

"In very many countries, there are strict rules about sex and drugs that are part of law and offenders are punished for disobeying them".

In the above sentence, I've changed sex to sexual intercourse, as the article on sex only states that living being can have a sex, but doesn't go into the act of having sex (which is what governments may or may not want to prohibit...)

---- Insert non-formatted text here--~~~~--~~~~''''Italic text''''Italic text''''== Commas ==

Is there a preference for commas before ands? Oysterguitarist 17:31, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seriously, You vere put a comma and an '&' next to each other. I learnt that in Infant school. This is basic english language stuff. IuseRosary ^(talk) 17:35, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I go by Technical writing books and that is how it is done, and please choose your comments carefully that seemed like an attack. Oysterguitarist 17:41, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What I would like to know is, What type of governement is ruled by the people? If you have the answer Please write it on here so I will know! Thanks.

Official[change source]

The British usage is perhaps different from elsewhere. Anyway, we do not call the people who govern us "officials". They are elected, and form a government of ministers. The government's wishes and laws (etc) are carried out by civil servants. They are the officials. Ditto at local level, where we have elected councillors, and permanent officials employed by the town council (etc). Macdonald-ross (talk) 17:58, 14 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's a common enough term. I can't speak to how common it is in Britain but in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and other places, the term is used and understood. From our own article Official (based on the enwiki article) "An official is someone who holds an office". For official, Simple Wiktionary (noun) has: "An official is a person who has certain authority." The Oxford Dictionaries website has, under noun: " A person holding public office or having official duties, especially as a representative of an organization or government department…" My pocket Oxford Dictionary has: "n. a person holding public office or having official duties." None of these distinguish between an elected official or a civil servant. I don't doubt what you're saying about Britain is correct, perhaps in strict sense. But in a general sense and this context I see nothing wrong with the edit I made. If I'm missing the point, please help me understand. Otherwise the edit seems consistent with our article and the Wiktionary entry. Thanks User:Rus793 (talk) 22:01, 14 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is just a question of usage. Not everyone who occupies an official position is called "an official". For example, it would be a mistake in usage to call a consultant surgeon an official, even though he certainly does occupy an official position. A U.S. Senator is always described as "the Senator from ..." or something similar, but never as an official, even though he is an official. Macdonald-ross (talk) 09:17, 15 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]