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Comment by tomnipotent | Hacker News Reader

> went to the judges

Which are part of the Spanish government.

> Which are part of the Spanish government.

Judges in Spain are not part of the government ("Gobierno"). They are part of the Poder Judicial, the judiciary. The Spanish Constitution separates these clearly, give it a skim if you haven't already.

The judiciary is part of the government. Being an independent branch doesn't change that. Government doesn't just mean legislative.

That's not what the constitution says though. "Government" ("Gobierno") is what an American would understand "executive branch" to be, I'm guessing this is why it's confusing. I tried to make it easier by adding the translations, but maybe that's just making it more confusing :)

I guess broadly in English you'd say the judges are part of the state, but they're not a part of the Spanish Government.

That’s true in America, but the word government is applied more narrowly elsewhere, including in the UK.

What matters is what the OP was communicating with it, and in English it means all state bodies responsible for administration. No one would argue the US Supreme Court is not part of the government.

No. That's what it means in the USA. Judges are not part of the government in the UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand either. They're part of the State.

You and others are confusing definition for meaning. An HN rule asks people to engage with the best interpretation of someones argument, in which case it's very clear what the OP was communicating by using "government" where you might use "state", and it's clear from responses that folks clearly know that but have decided to argue over pointless semantics that engage with the posters meaning. Not a single comment tried to engage with the comment with good intentions, so focused on "I gotcha!" vibes over unproductive pedantry. How pointless and petty.

Nah. There was some genuine confusion. And then there were some Americans incorrectly asserting that their usage was an English language thing.

I think I might be mainly responsible for the confusion, but not on purpose or with ill-intent, but literally "this word means differently for us here, who live in the country we're discussing", and I tried to make it easier to understand, but I think I made it worse.

Nothing here been a "gotcha" but basically Spanish-speaking people using English to communicate Spanish concepts to Americans who also speak English but have different understanding of those concepts. Nothing malicious here, just some good old misunderstandings :)

The judiciary is part of the state. The government is also part of the state. They are different parts.

Government means precisely just the executive branch in international English across most polities with institutions.

In many countries, the word “government” only refers to the executive branch

The rest are often called civil servants.

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