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Questions tagged [head-of-state]

Questions relating to the position of head of state, the public figurehead of a nation, such as a President or Monarch. If your question relates to an individual who happens to be a current or previous head of state, but the question is unrelated to the position itself, do not use this tag.

5 votes
1 answer
596 views

Can a supreme court oust an elected head-of-government due to a conflict of interest?

In Israel, the supreme court is going to discuss an appeal to oust the prime minister, due to claims that he has a conflict of interest: he is involved in legislation regarding the justice system ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
509 views

Does Castro hold the record for re-election speech length, among heads of government/state?

According to Reuters: Castro holds the record for the longest speech ever delivered to the United Nations: 4 hours and 29 minutes, on Sept. 26, 1960, according to the U.N. website. One of his longest ...
got trolled too much this week's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
114 views

Is there a comprehensive list of uncontested elections for head of state?

Regarding the upcoming election of the next Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive (CE) on 2022-05-08: As of 2022-05-03, various news outlets report that John Lee Ka-chiu (李家超) is running uncontested. In ...
kevinarpe's user avatar
  • 121
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why are there so few democratic governments with multiple rulers?

What I mean is most governments with multiple rulers are tribal communities, dictatorships, and monarchic coalitions. Governments with multiple rulers are duumvirates/diarchies, triumvirates/...
mammifereviolet4694's user avatar
-6 votes
2 answers
224 views

Has any head of state ever proven to be a foreign spy? [closed]

WWI and Russia In his tour de force conspiracy theory book series Victor Suvorov(a pen name) makes a number of claims about alternative interpretation of the origins of the Soviet Union, Germany and ...
wrod's user avatar
  • 9,609
0 votes
0 answers
63 views

Is there anything special that makes Germany have such stability for its head of government? [duplicate]

The following image shows the quite extraordinary political German stability in the government, namely how much a head of government can survive: Wikipedia shows a somewhat similar situation in the ...
Alexei's user avatar
  • 53.4k
24 votes
5 answers
4k views

What countries have several heads of state with equal power?

I have learned from this video that Switzerland does not have a single head-of-state - it is managed cooperatively by seven ministers with equal powers (the "president" serves only ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
922 views

Why do countries keep the British Monarch as their head of state?

I think it is somewhat understandable for small territories that are either still dependent on the United Kingdom or are independent but relying economically on the UK, but what about Canada, Belize, ...
frankpujo's user avatar
  • 326
5 votes
1 answer
185 views

Who is the sovereign of the Vatican between papal elections?

The pope of the Roman Catholic Church is the head of state of the Vatican City state. But between the death or resignation of one pope and the election of the next, there is an interregnum. While in ...
Daphne Preston-Kendal's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
704 views

What are the arguments for having a democratically-elected, ceremonial President?

Some countries, particularly those governed by the parliamentary system, tend to have a ceremonial head of state. In constitutional monarchies, those tend to be Kings or Queens. But in parliamentary ...
QuantumWalnut's user avatar
8 votes
8 answers
6k views

Does a country need a head of state?

Several Western-European countries are monarchies (Belgium, United Kingdom, Netherlands). All these countries have from time to time some discussion on if this system should be kept. So far, the side ...
user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
273 views

Must parliamentary democracies hold a vote of confidence when choosing its Prime Minister?

While many parliamentarian systems require the parliament to hold a vote to confirm its Prime Minister (e.g. Germany, Ireland, Finland), that is not always the case. Here are some examples: Denmark: ...
QuantumWalnut's user avatar
42 votes
5 answers
18k views

Why does US tend to have rather old leaders (> 60) while more and more European countries have young ones (<40)?

This questions deals with the age of presidential candidates in US. The most upvoted answer argues that: The main reason is simply that president of the US is the very top position that can be ...
Alexei's user avatar
  • 53.4k
10 votes
1 answer
548 views

To what extent does the British Royal Family provide the United Kingdom with soft power?

A common argument that is given for the continuation of the monarchy in Britain is that it provides the United Kingdom with soft power. The OED defines soft power as: a persuasive approach to ...
CDJB's user avatar
  • 108k
2 votes
1 answer
211 views

Immunity from prosecution for heads of state

From what I understand so far, heads of state generally enjoy immunity from prosecution from the judicial system throughout the duration of their term of office. To give particular examples, ...
CDJB's user avatar
  • 108k

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