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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.
Vice Presidents in Government
In politics, Vice Presidents are sometimes 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 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 House
of Representatives and the Senate, along with the Irish Chief Justice. In Germany,
the de facto vice president is the president of the Bundesrat (parliament) and in
France it is the speaker of the Senate.
In some countries, the Vice President is called the Deputy President.
Vice Presidents from history have included:
Corporate Vice Presidents
In business, vice-president refers to a rank in senior or middle management. Most companies who use this title generally have large
numbers of persons with the title of vice president with different types of vice president (i.e. vice president for finance).
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.
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