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In politics, a party chair (often party chairperson/-man/-woman or party president) is the presiding officer of a political party. The nature and importance of the position differs from country to country, and also between political parties.
The role of a party chairperson is often quite different from that of a party leader. The duties of the chairman are typically concerned with the party membership as a whole, and the activities of the party organization. Chairpersons often play important roles in strategies to recruit and retain members, in campaign fundraising, and in internal party governance, where they may serve as a member of, or even preside over, a governing board or council. They often also have influence in candidate selections, and sometimes in the development and promulgation of party policy. When describing the position within the American Democratic Party, PBS NewsHour described it as "part cheerleader, part fundraiser, part organizer and recruiter, part public messenger". [1]
Throughout the years Party Chairperson roles have changed as candidates create their own fundraising committees. [2]
In Belgium, the top position of a political party is typically called its chairman (voorzitter/président), but its role is rather that of a party leader or even a combination of both. The party chairman/leader is the mightiest person within the party, controlling appointments etc. After the Prime Minister of Belgium the party chairmen are the most important figures in Belgian politics, sometimes characterized as a particracy. Following parliamentary elections, the party chairmen are the chief negotiators of the coalition agreement, and subsequently the chairman of the largest governing party typically becomes the Prime Minister and resigns as party chairman; he is replaced by a different chairman, usually interim. For example, PS chairman Elio Di Rupo became Prime Minister of the Di Rupo Government in 2011 and resumed the chairmanship in 2014 at the end of the government. He was replaced by Thierry Giet and Paul Magnette during this period.
Most major political parties elect their chairman by a vote of all the party's members. This practice was started by the Flemish liberal party in the 1990s.
The convenor of the ruling BJP led National Democratic Alliance is called the Chairperson. India's Home Minister Amit Shah holds the post.
The leader of Chinese Communist Party between 1943 and 1982 was the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. The post of chairman was abolished in 1982, and most of its functions were transferred to the revived post of General Secretary. The move was made as part of a larger effort to distance the country from Maoist politics.
Usually in Malaysia, the term is used to refer any leader of a political coalition. The term 'president' in the other hand refer to a political party leader. Despite that, the role of a coalition chair is the same as party leader. The leader of the largest party within the coalition is usually will also be the chairperson of his or her alliance. However, this is not a requirement. For example, current President of People's Justice Party cum Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is also the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan despite his party is not the largest one in the coalition.
However, in a political party, there may still a title of Chairperson (often styled as Permanent Chairperson) exist in most of parties. It holds the highest ranking in any party posts. Despite that, the position is not the most powerful within the party as the President still holds its power.
In the Netherlands, in contrast to Belgium, the chairmen are relatively weak, due to a separation of powers. Chairmen of political parties merely control the party organization, the bureau, and its finances, while the political leader, often the chair of the parliamentary party, decides over the party's political course. Many party chairmen go on to occupy more important posts. Ria Beckers for instance was chairman of the Political Party of Radicals, before she became chair of its parliamentary party. There is one important exception to the above picture: Jan Marijnissen, former political leader of the Socialist Party combined being political leader of its parliamentary party and chairman of the party itself.
In the United Kingdom the term may refer to the holder of the office of Chairman of the Conservative Party or to a senior member of the Labour Party (not to be confused with the other Chairman of the Labour Party who chairs the NEC or the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party elected solely by Labour MPs). This title was given to Labour's Harriet Harman after she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in June 2007.
The chairmen of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) serve as the operational heads of their respective political party. In addition, each state and territory has their own Democratic and Republican Party which also have chairmen or chairwomen.
A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election. A party not having majority is common under proportional representation, but not in nations with majoritarian electoral systems.
The shadow cabinet or shadow ministry is a feature of the Westminster system of government. It consists of a senior group of opposition spokespeople who, under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition, form an alternative cabinet to that of the government, and whose members shadow or mirror the positions of each individual member of the Cabinet. Their areas of responsibility, in parallel with the ruling party's ministries, may be referred to as a shadow portfolio. Members of a shadow cabinet have no executive power. It is the shadow cabinet's responsibility to scrutinise the policies and actions of the government, as well as to offer alternative policies. The shadow cabinet makes up the majority of the Official Opposition frontbench, as part of frontbenchers to the parliament. Smaller opposition parties in Britain and Ireland have Frontbench Teams.
The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal views. The party is a member of the Liberal Group, Renew Europe, and Liberal International.
Elio Di Rupo is a Belgian politician who has served as the minister-president of Wallonia since 2019. He is affiliated with the Socialist Party. Di Rupo previously served as the prime minister of Belgium from 6 December 2011 to 11 October 2014, heading the Di Rupo Government. He was the first francophone to hold the office since Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1979, and the country's first socialist prime minister since Edmond Leburton left office in 1974. Di Rupo was also Belgium's first prime minister of non-Belgian descent, and the world's second openly gay person and first openly gay man to be head of government in modern times.
The Centre Party, officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian-centrist political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as liberal, social-liberal, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been part of the parliamentary opposition.
The orders of precedence in China is the ranking of political leaders in China for the purposes of event protocol and to arrange the ordering of names in official news bulletins, both written and televised. It is also sometimes used to assess perceived level of political power. Although there is no formally published ranking, there is usually an established convention and protocol, and the relative positions of Chinese political figures can usually be deduced from the order in meetings and especially by the time and order in which figures are covered by the official media. Since 1982, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party has been the highest-ranking official in the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The chairman of the government of the Russian Federation, also informally known as the prime minister, is the head of government of Russia and the second highest ranking political office in Russia. Although the post dates back to 1905, its current form was established on 12 December 1993 following the introduction of a new constitution.
The Progressive Party is an agrarian political party in Iceland.
The Left-Green Movement, also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland.
The cabinet of the Netherlands is the main executive body of the Netherlands. The current cabinet of the Netherlands is the Schoof cabinet, which has been in power since 2 July 2024. It is headed by Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
The Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, more commonly referred to as the Leader of the Opposition, is the person who leads the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom. The position is seen as the shadow head of government of the United Kingdom and thus the shadow prime minister of the United Kingdom.
In New Zealand, the leader of the Official Opposition, commonly described as the leader of the Opposition, is the politician who heads the Official Opposition. Conventionally, they are the leader of the largest political party in the House of Representatives that is not in Government. This is usually the parliamentary leader of the second-largest caucus in the House of Representatives.
The Social Democratic Party is an East Timorese party founded on 20 September 2000. Despite its name, the party, like its Portuguese model, is usually categorised as centre-right in the political spectrum. It describes itself as being in the middle between left and right (centrist). The aim of the party's founders was to offer voters a moderate alternative to Fretilin and UDT. In 2002, the party had 8,000 members. Since then, the PSD has lost its importance. The PSD did not contest the 2023 parliamentary elections in East Timor.
A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. They are their party's most senior member of parliament (MP) in most parliamentary democracies.
A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party.
A formateur is a politician who is appointed to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government. The role of the formateur is especially important in the politics of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Israel and the Czech Republic. These countries have a parliamentary system, where the executive derives its mandate from majority support in the legislature. They also use proportional representation for elections to parliament, and have a multiparty system that makes it improbable for one party to win an outright majority. There may be several combinations of parties which might form a coalition. The formateur is traditionally appointed by the head of state but in the Netherlands that became the right of the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the early 21st century.
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.
Katrín Jakobsdóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the prime minister of Iceland from December 2017 to April 2024 and was a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík North constituency from 2007 to 2024.
Following the Belgian general election held on 13 June 2010, a process of cabinet formation started in Belgium. The election produced a very fragmented political landscape, with 11 parties elected to the Chamber of Representatives, none of which won more than 20% of the seats. The Flemish-Nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the largest party in Flanders and the country as a whole, controlled 27 of 150 seats in the lower chamber. The Francophone Socialist Party (PS), the largest in Wallonia, controlled 26 seats. Cabinet negotiations continued for a long time. On 1 June 2011, Belgium matched the record for time taken to form a new democratic government after an election, at 353 days, held until then by Cambodia in 2003–2004. On 11 October 2011, the final agreement for institutional reform was presented to the media. A government coalition was named on 5 December 2011 and sworn in after a total of 541 days of negotiations and formation on 6 December 2011, and 589 days without an elected government with Elio Di Rupo named Prime Minister of the Di Rupo I Government.