Party leader
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In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a political party may officially be party chair, secretary, or the highest political office.
The party leader is often responsible for managing the party's relationship with the general public and leading the competition against political rivals, similar to the role of a party spokesperson. As such, they will take a leading role in developing and communicating party platforms to the electorate.
In many representative democracies, party leaders compete directly for high political office. It is thus typical in such states (notably in the Westminster system) for the party leader to seek election to the legislature and, if elected, to simultaneously serve as the party's parliamentary leader. In several countries utilizing the parliamentary system, if the party leader's political party emerges with a majority of seats in parliament after a general election, is the leading party in a coalition government, or (in some instances) is the largest party in a minority parliament, that party's leader often serves as the prime minister. Thus, in the politics of several countries utilizing the parliamentary system, a political party's leader is treated as a de facto candidate for prime minister by the media and the general public, even if said office is technically not directly elected.
Party Head or leader of a political party, subject to party's constitutional document need not be elected member of legislature and is therefore different from leader of parliamentary committee of a party.
This is much harder to do in
Examples
Canada
In Canada, the leaders of all major political parties are chosen during their respective political party's leadership conventions upon the completion of a leadership election. Exceptions to this process sometimes occur when Members of Parliament leave their former party to form a new party; examples of this include when Jean-François Fortin quit the Bloc Québécois to form Strength in Democracy in 2014 and when Maxime Bernier quit the Conservative Party to form the People's Party of Canada in 2018.
China
The leaders of
Germany
The party organizations themselves and also their representatives (such as the chairperson, who is the party leader, and other board members) play a much more prominent role in German politics than they do in many other countries, where the parties are mainly represented by their members and leaders in government. Although the party leaders often also hold important public offices (such as government minister or parliamentary leader), those roles are clearly separated, even by law. Consequently, it does occasionally happen that the leaders of a German party are not even members of parliament, such as Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil, who are incumbent the chairpersons of the (governing) Social Democrats. This sometimes leads to open conflicts between the party leadership, its parliamentary group and its members of government.
Netherlands
In the
In the Third Rutte cabinet, the only party leader in the cabinet was Prime Minister Mark Rutte the leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), while the leaders of the other parties in the coalition: Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) leader Sybrand van Haersma Buma, Democrats 66 (D66) leader Alexander Pechtold and Christian Union (CU) leader Gert-Jan Segers opted to remain as Parliamentary leaders in House of Representatives.
South Korea
In the
Taiwan
The major political parties in Taiwan are the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang.
The Democratic Progress Party's constitution stipulates that the President may serve directly as Party Chairman without an election during the ruling period, and that the Party Chairman is elected by party members during the opposition period. The Party constitution of the Kuomintang provides that the party chairman is directly elected by party members.
The current chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party is President Tsai Ing-wen. The current chairman of the Kuomintang is former Vice Premier Eric Chu.
Turkey
In Turkey, the party chairpersons are the de facto party leaders. The leaders of all major political parties are chosen during their respective political party's leadership conventions upon the completion of a leadership election. Exceptions to this process sometimes occur when Members of Parliament leave their former party to form a new party. It is possible to co-chair a party. The party leader is the most prominent politician of the party and is usually considered to become the head of government. However, a party leader may also put forward a different candidate for the elections. The party leader (chairperson) can not be the same as the party's General Secretary.
United Kingdom
The method of selection of the party leader varies from party to party, though often it will involve an election involving all or part of the party membership. In some parties, only incumbent members of the
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, gained the position on 25 October 2022; he has served as the party leader of the Conservative Party since 24 October 2022. Sir Keir Starmer is leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition.
United States
If elected, political parties have party leaders in the executive branch of the United States government. The President becomes the de facto leader of their respective political party once elected, and the Vice President likewise holds a leadership role as both the second-highest executive officer and the President of the Senate. However, major parties also generally have a National Committee as their governing body, which has separate leadership roles.
The legislative branch, otherwise known as the United States Congress, is made up of the upper chamber, the Senate, and the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, with party-elected leaders in each. The leader of the party with most of the representation (sometimes called the party-in-power) in each case is known as the majority leader, whereas the leader of the opposing party with the most members is known as the minority leader.
Party leaders in the United States Senate have been elected by their respective political parties' caucuses since 1913. They include President of the Senate Kamala Harris,
The party leaders of the House of Representatives are elected by their respective parties in the House by secret ballot. The Republican Party is represented in the House by Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, whereas the Democratic Party is represented by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In the House of Representatives, the most powerful official is the House-elected Speaker.
Jaime Harrison serves as the chair of the Democratic Party, while Michael Whatley serves as the chair of the Republican Party.
See also
References
- OCLC 853687425. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ^ Buckley, Chris (30 October 2016). "Xi Jinping Is China's 'Core' Leader: Here's What It Means". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2018.