Talk:Governance of Kosovo

Fundamental principles of article

I am afraid that I think the fundamental principles on which this article was created, separately from "The Cabinet of Kosovo" were wrong.

Looking at the Wikipedia articles on the US Government, the British one, the French one and the German one, I see that there are consistently (as there must be) references in the lead to the legislative and judicial branches, and to relations with the Head of State if separate from the Head of Government and to relations with sub-national authorities (local government or US states or Länder). But only in the article on the American Government is "Government" seen as encompassing the legislative, executive, and judicial branches together, and even there the "Government" is regarded only as existing at the Federal level, although of course separate States continue to have very important powers. elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the word "governance" would probably used to include the three branches of a state.

What I therefore consider to be Wikipedia practice is to treat "Government" according to the separate constitutions of the entities under consideration. If "Government" is constitutionally separate from the Head of State, the legislature, and the judiciary, then so it should be treated, with some explanation in the lead, and in the article, of how the different bits fit together.

If the constitutional definition of the "Government" of Kosovo were different under the UNMIK Constitutional Framework and the Constitution adopted in 2008 were different; this would present a difficult problem for NPOV. But this problem does not exist: under the Constitutional Framework of 2001, and under the Constitution of 2008, "Government" is narrowly defined as the Prime Minister, the other Ministers, and their Ministries.

It may be the case that the some non-recognising states regard the "Government" as part of the "Provisional Institutions of Self-Government". But so they were until 2008, but the PISG included something called the "Government" of Kosovo. And the three-monthly reports by the UN Secretary-General continue to refer to "the Government" in the narrow sense of Ministers and Ministries at Kosovo level, in a status-neutral way. I can see no reason why this article should differ. Nor does the "Cabinet of Kosovo" exist in any legal definition, or in any colloquially accepted sense. In Britain, the "Cabinet" means the principal Ministers. It does not in Kosovo, where "cabinet" means the advisors, probably useless parasites, tea-makers and photo-copyists brought in by the Minister (the normal continental European definition).

So expect radical changes, unless I get replies.--Markd999 (talk) 20:13, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Eh. I just saw this. I just left a message on your talk page about why I reverted your edits. I will ellaborate here as to the issue(s) you raised.

I see the main issue here as "what is inclusive of 'government'"? It really stems from the common definition of the English word "government", as opposed to the definition given by the Queen of England or her ministers. I myself have raised this issue before, to no avail. Your suggested solution of "Governance" is novel, and potentially the best (and only?) solution I have seen thus far. In my view, it stems from the fact that in the English system of government is not cohesively defined, whereas the American systems are. On one hand, one could say in the UK there is only one governmental authority and that is the monarch, who has given authority to the legislative branch, who has given authority to the judical branch and the executive branch. There is no easily referenced set of foundational documents, as in Kosovo or the United States' systems of government.

I see your argument as such that there is no difference between the "government" (in British English lingo) and "cabinet" (in American English lingo). Given that this article is an article that encompases all branches, the correct solution would be to rename this article, not wholesale replacement, then to rename the Cabinet of Kosovo (composed of the Prime Minister, the Ministers, and the Ministries) as the Government of Kosovo leaving this article as a separate Governance of Kosovo article (which has never been done AFAIK). Not a bad solution, albeit a novel one. In sum, I reject that the solution is wholesale removal. Unfortunately, this leaves you with a burdensome solution, a solution you have chosen to avoid, as have most others. Remember, what has been done, what should be done, and what will be done are separate but related issues. Int21h (talk) 04:02, 16 December 2012 (UTC)