President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, universities,

and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in

leadership (from Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit"). Originally, the term usually
referred to the presiding officer of a ceremony or meeting (i.e. chairman); but today it
most commonly refers to an official with executive powers.

Among other things, President is today a common title for the head of state of a
republic, whether popularly elected, chosen by the legislature or a special electoral
college. It is also often adopted by dictators.

The bulk of this article is dedicated to this usage by heads of state. For more on other
kinds of presidents, see Non-Governmental Presidents, below. For more on the usage
of term "president", see President (history of the term).

Parliamentary systems
Other states have what is called a Parliamentary system of government, in which the
President is only head of state, and the Prime Minister is the head of government.
Countries with such systems include India, Ireland and Italy. Under such a system,
executive authority is often vested in the president, with the Government governing in
his or her name, producing phrases such as "His/Her Excellency's Government" in
some formal state documentation. However a president may also possess some
reserve powers or powers which can be exercised by the President without formal
advice (ie, binding instruction) from 'His' or 'Her' Governnment.

In parliamentary systems, the president's role is usually primarily ceremonial.

However, due the combination of constitutionally established "reserve powers,"
protocol (which may require them to formally chair cabinet meetings and/or have
access to all cabinet memoranda), and his or her role as the person in whose name
executive authority is vested, often gives the president a degree of informal influence
not often publicly realised.

"President of Government" in parliamentary systems

Some countries with parliamentary systems use the term 'president' in connection with
the head of parliamentary government, often as 'President of the Government',
'President of the Council of Ministers' or 'President of the Executive Council'.

However, such an official is explicitly not the president of the country. Rather, he or
she is called a president in an older sense of the word to denote the fact that he or she
heads the cabinet. A separate head of state generally exists in their country that
instead serves as the president of the country.

Thus, such leaders are really premiers, and to avoid confusion are often described
simply as 'prime minister' when being mentioned internationally.

There are several examples for this kind of presidency:

 • The prime minister of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1937 was titled
President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. At the same time,
the Irish Free State was a kingdom with a reigning monarch, the King of
Ireland, as well as a resident Governor-General carrying out many head of
state functions.
• The Prime Minister of Spain is officially referred to as the President of the
Government of Spain, and informally known as the "President". Spain is also a
kingdom with a reigning King of Spain.
• The official title of the Prime Minister of Serbia is President of the
Government, while the country has a President of Serbia.

Semi-presidential systems
A third system is the semi-presidential system, also known as the French system, in
which like the Parliamentary system there is both a President and a Prime Minister,
but unlike the Parliamentary system the President has significant day-to-day power.
When his party controls the majority of seats in the National Assembly the president
can operate closely with the parliament and prime minister, and work towards a
common agenda. When the National Assembly is controlled by opponents of the
President however, the president can find himself marginalized with the opposition
party prime minister exercising most of the power. Though the prime minister
remains an appointee of the president, the president must obey the rules of parliament,
and select a leader from the house's majority holding party. Thus, sometimes the
president and PM can be friends, sometimes bitter rivals. This situation is known as
cohabitation. The French semi-presidential system, which can be considered a hybrid
between the first two, was developed at the beginning of the Fifth Republic by
Charles de Gaulle. It is used (of course) in France, Russia, and several other post-
colonial countries which have emulated the French model.

Between 1870 and 1940, and again from 1945 to 1958, France operated a classic
parliamentary system of government, with power in a cabinet chosen by the National
Assembly, and a largely though not totally symbolic president. In 1877, President
MacMahon showed that his office was constitutionally significant when he dismissed
the then prime minister before calling new elections, in the hope of achieving a
royalist majority to restore the monarchy. In earlier periods, France operated under
systems of absolute monarchy (pre the 1789 revolution), constitutional monarchy
(1815-1848), a presidential system (1848-52) and an empire (early 1800s to 1815;
1852-1870).

In dictatorships, the title is frequently taken by self-appointed and/or military-backed

leaders. Such is the case in many African states; Idi Amin in Uganda, for example.
Sometimes the title is even extended into the more presumptuous form of "president
for life." In some communist states, the head of the Communist party was also given
the presidency, such as Fidel Castro in Cuba and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet
Union. On other occasions in the Soviet Union, the real power was exercised by the

This level of control may extend down to legal counsel in the departments, and
division heads and other special appointments within each department. Ultimately,
every appointment allowed by law which can be controlled by an elected President is
made by the President, and not in succession by his highest appointees in the
department. The Secretary of State, for example, does not appoint his own staff - the
President appoints the staff. (A cabinet level officer usually has control over his
personal administrative secretary or others who are personal to the officer.) This
occurs in all of the Cabinet level divisions of he government.

Similarly, the President appoints several levels of each agency. There are many
entities in government which report directly to the President. The appointive
process works exactly the same in those agencies. An example is the Small
Business Administration where the President appoints the Director, but also
appoints assistant Directors and Regional Administrators around the United States.

There is no clearer example of the control over patronage which is held close to
the head of government than this. The President, so that power can be used as a
weapon, or device, to maintain control and power over the political and policy
process controls appointments through his own hand. While senior appointees may
have consultation on the selection of their junior officers, they clearly do not have
political control over the appointments beneath their own. Loyalty is to the
appointing officer. The White House, regardless of political party, never allows that
loyalty and the power that comes with it to stray far from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
and from the Oval Office of the President of the United States.

Presidential appointees who require Senate confirmation do not usually take office
until after the confirmation process is complete. The Senate has always felt free to
block or slow appointments it doesn't like by simply delaying the confirmation
process. However, as a counter balance to this routine, nominations made by the
President when the Congress is not in Session are called "Interim Appointments"
and the nominees take office immediately, without confirmation, which is delayed
until the Senate reconvenes.

The practical impact of this procedure is that the nominee then remains on interim
status, doing the work of the office and being fully paid, until either confirmed by the
Senate when he is then fully sworn in as a regular appointment, or rejected, at
which time that nominee must leave office immediately. The logical significance of
this process is to fill offices when the Senate is away, thereby not leaving important
positions open.

The political significance is that the President is in a position to make the interim
appointment regardless of what the Senate thinks, and often place a person which
the Senate either doesn't like, or where the Senate is using this procedure to
embarrass and keep someone out of office without refusing confirmation as
leverage against the President or that nominee. Among the games politicians play
with Presidential appointments, this is one of the more interesting and clever.
Needless to say the process does not necessarily build long standing friendships.

A large and significant number of committees, commissions and boards are

appointed by the President. Some are created by Congress, some by Executive
Order, and some sort of happen within various departments and agencies. These
are usually designed for celebrations, to support public events, or to deal with very
specific subjects which occur from time to time. Often they have high political
significance or high levels of public awareness but have little power or authority, but
generous glitz. None of these require Senate confirmation.
 Very often these appointments have huge impact on policy with almost no
notice. The government of the United States is so large that these relatively short
lived groups with special purposes go largely unnoticed. These are positions which
often include people of special experience and background included to do a special
job on a special subject. Certainly these are among the most interesting of
Executive appointments. They may include per diem and expense payments, and
often do. Many only cover expenses. A few have some sort of pay attached, but few
are full time for long, if at all. Staff and administrative support comes from the
department or agency where the group is created and attached. These
appointments are often long on attention and prestige and short on money and
longevity.

HOLDOVER APPOINTMENTS

When the transition from one President to the next occurs in the White House,
many positions remain filled by members of the last regime. This occurs because it
takes time for the new crowd to screen candidates and make the new appointment
nominations and selections. Usually, it does not make sense to leave positions
entirely unattended, so many times significant jobs remain in the hands of prior
appointees.

Many times it is actually to the benefit of a new President to leave former people
in offices. These are positions where unusual expertise is required, and the impact
of the job is not filled with negative political implications.

This is one of the situations where jobs, while patronage in style, are for one
reason or another are better filed by experts in place than by being vacant, or filled
with a Presidential selection which may be very difficult to find, and even harder to
persuade to take a specialized job for a relatively short period of years. Those who
are genuine experts can negotiate to stay very easily unless that person has
somehow become a political liability to the new President.