Prime Ministers in Republics and In Monarchies
The post of prime minister may be encountered both in constitutional monarchies (such as Belgium, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Norway, Malaysia, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), and in parliamentary republics in which the head of state is an elected official (such as Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Ireland, Pakistan, Portugal, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey).
This contrasts with the presidential system, in which the president (or equivalent) is both the head of state and the head of the government. See also "First Minister", "Premier", "Chief Minister", "Chancellor", "Taoiseach" and "Secretary of State": alternative titles usually equivalent in meaning to, or translated as, "prime minister". The head of government of the People's Republic of China is referred to as the Premier.
In some presidential or semi-presidential systems, such as those of France, Russia or South Korea, the prime minister is an official generally appointed by the president but usually approved by the legislature and responsible for carrying out the directives of the president and managing the civil service. (The premier of the Republic of China is also appointed by the president, but requires no approval by the legislature.
Appointment of the prime minister of France requires no approval by the parliament either, but the parliament may force the resignation of the government. In these systems, it is possible for the president and the prime minister to be from different political parties if the legislature is controlled by a party different from that of the president. When it arises, such a state of affairs is usually referred to as (political) cohabitation.
Read more about this topic: Prime Minister
Famous quotes containing the words prime, ministers, republics and/or monarchies:
“Ye elms that wave on Malvern Hill
In prime of morn and May,
Recall ye how McClellan’s men
Here stood at bay?”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“... the black girls didn’t get these pills because their black ministers were up on the pulpit saying that birth control pills were black genocide. What I’m saying is that black men have exploited black women.... They didn’t want them to have any choice about their reproductive health. And if you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“It is, said Gargantua, as Plato said ... that republics will be happy when kings philosophize or philosophers reign.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)