Executive与Administrative有什么区别？到底哪个才是“行政”？

词典及语言学习交流
1

《中华民国宪法》第53条规定：

行政院为国家最高行政机关。

官方英文译本将其翻译为：

The Executive Yuan shall be the highest administrative organ of the State.

不过，这样的翻译似乎存在一个值得探讨的问题。

如果“行政”应当翻译为 executive，那么这句话理应译为：

The Executive Yuan shall be the highest executive organ of the State.

如果“行政”应当翻译为 administrative，那么“行政院”似乎又应当译为Administrative Yuan。

整句话应为：

The Administrative Yuan shall be the highest administrative organ of the State.

既然如此，“行政”究竟应该翻译为 executive 还是 administrative？为什么官方译本一方面将“行政院”译为 Executive Yuan，另一方面又将“行政机关”译为 administrative organ？这两种译法之间究竟有什么区别？

2

英文维基里孟德斯鸠三权分立是用的legislature、executive、judiciary（见Separation of powers）。

ODE中对executive的解释就有一条说

Denoting or relating to the part of a political administration with responsibility for putting into effect laws drawn up by the legislature.

Example中也有executive authority和the executive branch of government。行政权用executive应该看来应该是比较公认的。

但是AHD中在对administrative的解释中也有提到

  1. often Administration
    a. The executive branch of a government.
    b. The group of people who manage or direct an institution, especially a school or college.

但是，综观各词典，administrative更多是一种广义上的“管理”，更强调“拥有权力的状态”而非行使权力本身。

3

Administrative表达权威性，Executive表达职能性