Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership (from Latin pre- "before" + sedere "to sit"; giving the term praeses). Originally, the term referred to the presiding officer of a ceremony or meeting (i.e., chairman), but today it most commonly refers to an official. Among other things, president today is a common title for the heads of state of most republics, whether popularly elected, chosen by the legislature or by a special electoral college.
Presidents in this system are either directly elected by popular vote or indirectly elected by an electoral college.
In the United States, the president is indirectly elected by the Electoral College made up of electors chosen by voters in the presidential election. In most U.S. states, each elector is committed to voting for a specified candidate determined by the popular vote in each state, so that the people, in voting for each elector, are in effect voting for the candidate. However, in four close U.S. elections (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000), the candidate with the most popular votes still lost the election. In Mexico, the president is directly elected for a six-year term by popular vote. The candidate who wins the most votes is elected president even without an absolute majority. The president may never get another term. The 2006 Mexican elections had a fierce competition, the electoral results showed a minimal difference between the two most voted candidates and such difference was just about the 0.58% of the total vote. The Federal Electoral Tribunal declared an elected President after a controversial post-electoral process.
In Brazil, the president is directly elected for a four-year term by popular vote. A candidate has to have more than 50% of the valid votes. If no candidates achieve a majority of the votes, there is a runoff election between the two candidates with most votes. Again, a candidate needs a majority of the vote to be elected. In Brazil, a president cannot be elected to more than two consecutive terms, but there is no limit on the number of terms a president can serve.
Many South American, Central American, and African nations follow the presidential model.
President for Life is a title assumed by some dictators to ensure that their authority or legitimacy is never questioned. Ironically, most leaders who proclaim themselves President for Life do not in fact successfully serve a life term. Even so, presidents like Alexandre Pétion, Rafael Carrera, Josip Broz Tito and François Duvalier died in office. Kim Il-Sung was named Eternal President of the Republic after his death.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla appointed himself in 82 BC to an entirely new office, dictator rei publicae constituendae causa, which was functionally identical to the dictatorate rei gerendae causa except that it lacked any set time limit, although Sulla held this office for over two years before he voluntarily abdicated and retired from public life. The second well-known incident of a leader extending his term indefinitely was Roman dictator Julius Caesar, who made himself "Perpetual Dictator" (commonly mistranslated as 'Dictator-for-life') in 45 BC. His actions would later be mimicked by the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte who was appointed "First Consul for life" in 1802.
The last living person to be officially proclaimed president for life was Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan.
Several presidents have ruled until their death, but they have not officially proclaimed themselves as President for Life. For instance, Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania, who ruled until his execution (see Romanian revolution).
Furthermore in some nations, the Presidency enjoys certain symbols of office, such as an official uniform, decorations, a presidential seal, coat of arms, flag and other visible accessories; military honours such as gun salutes, Ruffles and flourishes, and a presidential guard. A common presidential symbol is the presidential sashes worn by mostly Latin American presidents as a symbol of the presidency's continuity, and presenting the sash to the new president.
However, such an official is explicitly not the president of the country. Rather, he is called a president in an older sense of the word to denote the fact that he heads the cabinet. A separate head of state generally exists in their country that instead serves as the president or monarch of the country.
Thus, such officials 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 head of a university or non-profit corporation, particularly in the United States of America, is often known as president. In academic or education systems with multiple independent campuses, the relationship between the roles of university president and chancellor can become quite complicated.
President is also a title in many companies and corporations. In some cases the president acts as chief operating officer under the direction of the chief executive officer. Alternatively, in the U.S., the chairman of the board of directors may be called the president.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the head of the church is known as the President. Together with his two counselors, they are known as the First Presidency. This pattern is repeated throughout the church in quorums and in other bodies, each of which is led by a president. The Methodist Church in the UK (and also other provinces) is led by the President of the Methodist Council, and assumes the role of leading minister and spokesperson.
Many other organisations, clubs, and committees, both political and non-political are led by Presidents as well. Examples can vary from the President of a political party, to the president of a chamber of commerce, to the President of a students' union and even the president of a high school chess club. List of Presidents of Co-operative Congress
Chief executives Category:Heads of state Category:Management occupations Category:Positions of authority Category:Titles
af:President am:ፕሬዝዳንት ang:Foresittend ar:رئيس an:President arc:ܪܝܫ ܩܘܛܢܝܘܬܐ ast:Presidente az:Prezident bm:Jamanatigi zh-min-nan:Chóng-thóng map-bms:Presiden be:Прэзідэнт be-x-old:Прэзыдэнт bs:Predsjednik bg:Президент ca:President cv:Президент cs:Prezident cbk-zam:Presidente cy:Arlywydd da:Præsident de:Präsident et:President el:Πρόεδρος es:Presidente eo:Prezidanto eu:Lehendakari fa:رئیسجمهور fr:Président fy:Presidint gl:Presidente gan:總統 ko:대통령 hi:राष्ट्रपति hr:Predsjednik id:Presiden os:Президент is:Forseti it:Presidente he:נשיא jv:Présidhèn krc:Президент ka:პრეზიდენტი kk:Президент sw:Rais ht:Prezidan ku:Serokkomar la:Praeses lv:Prezidents lt:Prezidentas mr:राष्ट्राध्यक्ष ms:Presiden mn:Ерөнхийлөгч nah:Tlahtohcātēīxiptla nl:President ne:राष्ट्रपति ja:大統領 no:President nn:President oc:President mhr:Президент uz:Prezident pa:ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ps:ولسمشر pl:Prezydent pt:Presidente ro:Președinte qu:Umalliq ru:Президент se:Presideanta sco:Preses simple:President sk:Prezident sl:Predsednik so:Madaxweyne sr:Председник sh:Predsjednik fi:Presidentti sv:President tl:Pangulo tt:Президент th:ประธานาธิบดี tg:Президент tr:Başkan tk:Prezident udm:Азьмурт uk:Президент vec:Presidente vi:Tổng thống wuu:总统 yi:פרעזידענט yo:Ààrẹ zh-yue:總統 zh:總統This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.