President is a title leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in leadership (from Latin pre- "before" + sedere "to sit"; giving the term praeses). Originally, the term referred to the presiding officer of a ceremony or meeting (i.e. chairman); but today it most commonly refers to an official Among other things, president today is a common title for the head of state of most republics, whether popularly elected, chosen by the legislature or by a special electoral college. It is also often adopted by dictators.

History

main: History of president As an English word, the term was originally used to refer to the presiding officer of a committee or governing body in Great Britain. Early examples are the President of the Exchequer ("presidentis" in the original Latin, from the Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, 1179), the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (from 1464); the founding President of the Royal Society William Brouncker in 1660.

Later this usage was applied to political leaders, including the leaders of some of the Thirteen Colonies (originally Virginia in 1608); in full, the "President of the Council".. The first President of a country was George Washington, the President of the United States. In America the title was 'upgraded' from its earlier use for the President of the Continental Congress, the "officer in charge of the Continental Congress" since 1774.

As other countries followed the American Revolution, and deposed their monarchies, president was commonly adopted as the title for the new republican heads of state. The first European president was the president of France, a post created in the Second Republic of 1848. (The First Republic had begun with no separate executive, then established five directors, and finally echoed the ancient Roman Republic by appointing three consuls at its head.)

The first president of an internationally recognized African state was the President of Liberia in 1848.

Today, most republics have a President as their head of state.

Governer systems

In states with a presidential system of government, the President functions for the Head of State and Head of Government, i.e. he directs the Executive branch of Government.

Presidents in this system are either directly elected by popular vote or indirectly elected by an electoral college.

In the United States of America, the President is indirectly elected by the Electoral College made up of electors chosen by voters in the presidential election. In most U.S. states, each elector is committed to voting for a specified candidate determined by the popular vote in each state, so that the people, in voting for each elector, is in effect voting for the candidate. However, in several close U.S. elections (notably 1876, 1888, 2000), the candidate with the most popular votes still lost the electoral count.