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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary

Government vs. regime

Hi all,

I'm having a hard time making a distinction between regime and government. Is there any difference? Can someone please help me with the clarification? Thanks in advance!
  

Top answer

Hi, To my knowledge, the word regime carries a negative connotation, often in the sense of a totalitarian and corrupt political system. Goverment is neutral and is used to refer to the people who control a country. Moreover, regime cannot -- as far as I know -- refer to people , whereas government can either refer to people or a system .

— Dokterjokkebrok

  • Hi, To my knowledge, the word regime carries a negative connotation, often in the sense of a totalitarian and corrupt political system.
  • Goverment is neutral and is used to refer to the people who control a country.
  • Moreover, regime cannot -- as far as I know -- refer to people , whereas government can either refer to people or a system .
  • Regimes are often (highly) contentious.
  • For example, you could speak of Pol Pot's regime , during which many people perished.
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11 Answers
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Hi,

To my knowledge, the word regime carries a negative connotation, often in the sense of a totalitarian and corrupt political system. Goverment is neutral and is used to refer to the people who control a country. Moreover, regime cannot -- as far as I know -- refer to people, whereas government can either refer to people or a system.
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A regime is the type of government that is in place. For example, there are democratic/egalitarian regimes like that of the US, authoritarian regimes like that in Iran, and totalitarian regimes such as the one in North Korea.

The government is the administration that is currently in place, or the administration that was in place, depending on what time frame you are looking at. So for ex

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Hi,

Yet,as noted above, the word 'regime' tends to be used with a negative connotation.

Clive
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Well, yes, as used by the US and UK media and governments, the word "regime" is obviously meant to alert the audience that the government in question is somehow illegitimate and hostile. It is a basic ad hominem attack. This is amusing, considering that, used correctly, the word regime is neutral, and simply means a particular government which exists in a certain time period. It's place seems

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i believe that a system run by a dictator or non political leader is termed as Regime while the system run by elected representatives of people is described as a Government.
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Hello,

Regime, is the type of power, is it not a negative thing
when you say regime, the correct meaning to it is where the power of the state is located? in the hands of people or the hands of few. Therefore, a regime is related to democracy and non-democracy, where if a country is a democratic country, the power is in the hand of people, such as the U.S
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People who don't like Obama quite often refer to 'the Obama regime'.
eg http://www.nationalreview.com/article/356514/obama-regime-deroy-murdock
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Well said? Hardly.

How can a post criticising the butchering of the English language contain so many spelling errors and grammatical errors?

Or am I missing irony?

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What about when a dictator has own buddy army generals to bid the dictatorship...

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