Prime Minister

For the Wikipedia articles on the many titles, see Head of Government

A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving as the principle administrator under either a monarch in a monarchy or under a president in a republican form of government.

In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head/owner of the executive power. In such systems, the head of state or their official representative (e.g., monarch, president, governor-general) usually holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers.

Under some presidential systems, such as South Korea and Peru, the prime minister is the leader or most senior member of the cabinet, not the head of government.

In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential systems, a prime minister is the official appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state.

Today, the prime minister is often, but not always, a member of the legislature or its lower house, and is expected with other ministers to ensure the passage of bills through the legislature. In some monarchies the monarch may also exercise executive powers (known as the royal prerogative) without the approval of parliament.

As well as being head of government, being prime minister may require holding other roles or posts—the prime minister of the United Kingdom, for example, is also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. In some cases, prime ministers may choose to hold additional ministerial posts (e.g. when the portfolio is critical to that government's mandate): during the Second World War, Winston Churchill was also Minister of Defence (although there was then no Ministry of Defence). Another example is the Thirty-fourth government of Israel, when Benjamin Netanyahu at one point served as the prime minister and minister of Communications, Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, Economy, Defense and Interior.

Government role

The Prime Minister is normally a member of the parliament of said nation and normally becomes Prime Minister through being leader of the largest party in the lower house of the parliament if it is a bicameral system, or the whole parliament if a unicameral system, and so on and so forth,

in many countries, the role isn't called Prime Minister in the native language, only in English are those roles called Prime Minister, many titles include,

• Minister-president
• President of the Council of Ministers
• Chairman of the Government
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers
• President of the Government
• Premier
• First Minister and deputy First Minister (Only in Northern Ireland as they are joint head of the Northern Ireland Executive)
• Chief Minister
• Chief Executive
• Chancellor
• President of the Executive Council

Only in some countries is the head of the government is the nominal chief executive, like the Republic of Ireland. Normally the Head of State is the nominal chief executive in parliamentary or semi-presidential republics and in monarchies.

The Prime Minister is responsible to the legislature in parliamentary republics, and to the Head of State and the legislature in semi-presidential republics, and is normally nominated by the legislature and appointed by the head of state. The same applies to constitutional monarchies.

In turn the Prime Minister nominates his choice for the cabinet, with ministers and sometimes secretaries in the government departments, and also nominates a deputy, which can be the following depending on title of the head of government. The cabinet is then appointed by the Head of State.

• Vice President of the Council of Ministers
• Vice-Premier
• Deputy Minister-president
• Vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers
• Deputy-Chairman of the Council of Ministers
• Vice-president of the Government
• Deputy Premier
• Vice Prime Minister
• Deputy Prime Minister
• Deputy First Minister
• deputy First Minister
• Deputy Chief Executive
• Deputy Chief Minister
• Vice Chancellor
• Vice President of the Executive Council