Vice president
VP redirects here. For other uses, see VP (disambiguation).For other uses, see Veep.A
vice president is an
officer in
government or
business who is next in rank below a
president. The name comes from the
Latin vice meaning in place of. In some countries, the vice president is called the
deputy president. In
American slang, the American Vice President is sometimes referred to as the
V. P. or the
veep, while the spouse of a vice president may be known as the
Second Lady.
In politics, a vice president is a
politician whose primary function is to replace the
president on the event of his or her death or resignation.
Vice presidents are often elected jointly with the president as his or her
running mate, elected separately, or appointed independently after the president's election
Governments with vice presidents generally have only one person holding this role and generally if the president is not present, dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to fulfill his job, the vice president will serve as a president. In many
presidential systems, the vice president does not wield much day to day political power, but is still considered an important member of the
cabinet. Many Vice Presidents in the
Americas hold the symbolic position of
President of the Senate.
The vice president can sometimes assume some of the symbolic and less important functions of president, such as some ceremonial functions and events that the actual president may be too busy to attend; the
Vice President of the United States, for example often attends funerals of world leaders on behalf of the president. In this capacity the vice president may thus assume the role of a
de facto symbolic
head of state, a position which is lacking in a system of government where the powers of head of state and government are fused.
Because of the localization of democratic structures and linguistic differances, the vice-presidential position can mean different things in different democracies. In
parliamentary systems, most states do not have a vice president but instead name another office-holder, often the chairperson or president of the upper house of parliament or even the
prime minister to act as effective vice president. In the
Republic of Ireland, a collective vice presidency exists called the
Presidential Commission, made up of chairmen of both houses of the
Oireachtas (parliament), along with the Irish Chief Justice. In
Germany, the
de facto vice president is the
President of the Bundesrat (upper house) and in
France it is the speaker of the
Senate. In the
Russian Federation, the
Prime Minister serves as the
de facto vice president, although he has much more power than the
Vice President of the United States. In
Israel, the situation is somewhat vice versa as the
President is the symbolic
Head of State and performed the duties commonly assigned to a vice-president, while the
Prime Minister is the actual
Head of Government.
In
business, vice-president refers to a rank in senior or middle management. Most
companies that use this
title generally have large numbers of people with the title of vice president with different types of vice president (e.g. vice president for finance). A vice president in business usually reports directly to the president or CEO of the company. The senior VP is usually called the
Executive Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer or COO.
A corporate vice-president is rarely "second in line" to succeed the corporate president following death or resignation. Such decisions are usually left up to the
board of directors.
