Draft talk:Branches of government

== Possible paths for the 'branches of government' article (featuring further discussion of how to present its relation to the theory of powers of government, and to the priciple that they ought to be kept separate) ==

(1) Three visions for where this article could go.

It might make sense for this to become the overview article for legislature, executive (government) (as it stands, not a terribly worthwhile article), and judiciary; as well as for fourth branch ('guarantor institutions'), if that page exists. (If it doesn't exist, it perhaps should, since it's certainly a topic – note e.g. Tushnet, Mark V. (2021). The new fourth branch: institutions for protecting constitutional democracy (Cambridge Univ. Press). ISBN 978-1-009-04849-1.

That is to say, it could house Wikipedia's editorial content on the analytical notion of materially distinguishing state 'powers' (definitionally or typologically; e.g., the French and German theories of the state's 'functions' – la théorie des fonctions de l'État/die Lehre von den Staatsfunktionen), as well as summarizing the real-world structures known as government 'arms' or 'branches'. 'Powers of government' would accordingly be a redirect to the forthcoming mainspace article; and separation of powers would then be about the rules/categories used to materially or formally distinguish the state's 'powers', and the normative idea of separating them notionally and/or organizationally (into branches). I grant you, however, that this would result in a fair bit of overlap between the two articles that we have only just sought to create by splitting 'separation of powers'.

Alternatively, we can have 'powers'/'functions of government' – the theory that there are various sorts of state power that we can then classify and assign to a particular semi-independent structure ('branch') – as part of separation of powers, since it's analysis that must be done before postulating that they ought to be 'separated' in some way or another (by the theorists, but also by the reader of the encyclopedia). Or we could give it its own standalone main article, providing summaries in 'branches of government' and 'separation of powers'. I am inclined towards this option; but see discussion point (2) for the difficulties in getting there. There are definite downsides to having three articles on closely related topics lying about.

I think we need to base our decision on the different needs of the lay reader and knowledgeable and expert readers. I think the first of them is perhaps most likely to stumble on 'branches of government', and only require a summary of the more conceptual theory of powers/functions and principle of separation of powers.

(2) What to do with what exists already.

Much of what's in the 'branches of government' draft article at present (essentially, the material that will have formerly constituted the separation of powers article's second half when it is deleted in order to complete the splitting-off/draftification operation resolved on that article's talk page) is, at best, a listiform article. If it is worthy of being kept at all, it probably belongs under its own heading, such as 'List of branches of government in various jurisdictions' or 'Taxonomy of government bodies by country and by branch of government'. I don't really see the point of such a list, however; if there's anything unusual and remarkable about the powers of government in individual systems, it will surely be noted as a special case when the features that are shared in common by all the different legislative/executive/judicial/fourth branches. Academia has a vast literature on precisely these things (though I am not very familiar with it, not being interested in descriptive PoliSci); heck, comparative government, legislative/parliamentary studies, public administration, etc., are their own fields within the discipline: The upshot being that there is plenty of original research and synthesis out there in WP:RS that can be turned into a non-OR, non-cargo cult editing article. Now would be a worthwhile 'branches of government' article.

Please let me hear your thoughts and preferences as to (1) and (2), folks! —§§ LegFun §§ talk §§ 14:37, 20 June 2024 (UTC)