Major Leaders in Government

Introduction

This essay consists of a list of current heads of state and government, showing heads of state and heads of government where different, mainly in parliamentary systems; often a leader is both in presidential systems or dictatorships. Some states have semi-presidential systems where the head of government role is fulfilled by both the listed head of government and the head of state. The list includes the names of the recently elected or appointed heads of state who will take office on an appointed date.

Major Leaders in Government

International protocol holds that a head of state takes precedence over all other officials, and that heads of state rank in the order that they took office. The following list contains the heads of state for all United Nations member states and non-member observer states.

Commonwealth realms, other than the United Kingdom, each have a governor-general to represent the monarch. Governors-general are not heads of state, but are frequently accorded the status and privileges of a head of state at diplomatic events when considered to represent the monarch in right of the realm. The princes of Andorra each have a representative as well. They are included in the list and are highlighted in blue.

However, in many cases it is not this neutral principle but national rules of protocol that are acted upon, usually by an international event's host nation, as in many bilateral and even certain multilateral occasions. Various international organisations have a system for internal use. Even in the presence of one or more Heads of State, certain occasions are governed by specific protocol, e.g. military. Thus in many cases precedence is given to monarchs over republican heads of state, mostly in monarchies; in some nations, the Pope (himself a monarchical head of state) ranks above secular heads of state, especially in Roman Catholic countries.

 

Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign GovernmentsDate of Information: 11/8/2010

 Queen

ELIZABETH II

Prime Min., First Lord of the Treasury, & Minister for the Civil Service

David William Donald CAMERON

Dep. Prime Min.

Nicholas William Peter CLEGG

Chancellor of the Exchequer

George Gideon Oliver OSBORNE

Sec. of State for Business, Innovation, & Skills

John Vincent CABLE

Sec. of State for Communities & Local Govt.

Eric PICKLES

Sec. of State for Culture, Olympics, Media, & Sport

Jeremy HUNT

Sec. of State for Defense

Liam FOX

Sec. of State for Education

Michael GOVE

Sec. of State for Energy & Climate Change

Chris HUHNE

Sec. of State for the Environment, Food, & Rural Affairs

Caroline SPELMAN

Sec. of State for Foreign & ...