Definition of Goverment
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/government
In the social sciences,the term government refers to the particular group of people,the administrative bureaucracy,who control a state at a given time,and the manner in which their governing organizations are structured. That is,governments are the means through which state power is employed. States are served by a continuous succession of different governments.
Each successive government is composed of a specialized and privileged body of individuals,who monopolize political decision-making,and are separated by status and organization from the population as a whole. Their function is to enforce existing laws,legislate new ones,and arbitrate conflicts via their monopoly on violence. In some societies,this group is often a self-perpetuating or hereditary class. In other societies,such as democracies,the political roles remain,but there is frequent turnover of the people actually filling the positions.
In most Western societies,there is a clear distinction between a government and the state. Public disapproval of a particular government (expressed,for example,by not re-electing an incumbent) does not necessarily represent disapproval of the state itself (i.e. of the particular framework of government). However,some in some totalitarian regimes,there is not a clear distinction between the regime and the state. In fact,leaders in such regimes often attempt to deliberately blur the lines between the two,in order to conflate their own selfish interests with those of the polity.
