What is the difference between a president and a prime minister?

It changes from country to country, but you can generally divide them into a couple of types.

1) Presidential systems - A president is directly elected by the people as both the head of state and chief executive. In other words he is the ceremonial figure-head and also runs the government. These types of President usually serve for a fixed term and can't be removed unless they commit a serious crime. Examples of presidential systems are the USA, Russia and France. It's worth noting that Russia and France both have prime ministers who mainly help the president organize his government, acting a bit like the US White House Chief of Staff. They also represent the president's policies in parliament and serve in place of a vice-president.

2) Westminster or Parliamentary Systems - Named after the British system. In these a prime minister is chief executive and runs the government and country, while a king/queen/president has the mostly ceremonial role as the head of state. In these systems the prime minister is 'first-among-equals' as he/she is a member of the cabinet and can be replaced by any other cabinet member parliament wants. Most modern democracies follow the Westminster/Parliamentary system as it means the person running the country is more accountable and easier to replace should they go too far, and examples are the UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan. Be careful not to get them confused as sometimes the titles of people can be misleading, for example the Spanish prime minister is actually called president of the government, and is addressed as Senior Presidente, but he is merely a prime minister and Spain's head of state is the King. In Italy it's even more confusing, they have a president of the government (chief exec - PM) and a president of the republic (head of state).

Prime Ministers often have more domestic power than presidents as they control a majority in their parliament. But they are also easier to remove from office if they alienate their own parliament or party.

It all depends on the country. "Presidents" are largely ceremonial heads of states in countries like Singapore, Israel, India where the Prime Minister wields the power. But in China, the President and Prime Minister are powers in their own right (President No.1) nothing ceremonial about them. In a monarchy, the "Prime Minister" is the all-powerful as in Britain, Thailand. And of course the US, Phillipines has only the President to screw things up for everybody... lol just joking.

It depends on the format of the government in that country. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair do essentially the same job for their countries - but some governments have both a Prime Minister and a President.

A president is the head of the government. There are several ministers who serve along with him to run the affairs of a government. The chief of these ministers who, in turn, reports to the president is the prime minister.

However, in most governmental systems where a president and a prime minister coexist, the prime minister is usually more powerful in reality and the president is only a figurative leader. Like it is in India. India has a president but it is really the prime minister who is the practical leader.

Also in the UK, the queen rules but the prime minister is practically the head of the government.

A president is the head of state in a presidential system while the prime-minister is the head of state in a parliamentary system. In the parliamentary system you can also have a president but he/she often does not have much power. Most of the time a president is directly elected while the prime-minister is usually indirectly elected (by the parliament).

undine,

>> presidesnts have this "term" wherein they can only last for a maximum no. of years

Unless he/she is president for life, like former turkmenbashi Niazov.

Presidents represents the head of state of a Republic, like the U.S.A. Prime Ministers represents the head of state of a Monarchy, like the U.K., otherwise they are just the same.

A Prime Minister does what a Pesident tells him. Like Blair and Bush!

prime minister and presdient have different roles in different countries.like for india we have prime minister to o most of the country's work with less authority while slthough the president does much of worjk himself,but he has the complete authority.

something similar but different for US

A president, such as the President of the USA, is directly elected by the people.

A prime minister, such as Tony Blair, is unelected by the people and chosen by his parliamentary party.

a president is uually a dik

where a prime minister is usually a pussE

prove my point

Bush is a dik

Tony Blair is a PussE

that guy from IRAQ is a pussE