An executive president is a president who exercises active executive power in a certain systems of government. Executive presidents are active in day-to-day governance of a nation, and are usually popularly elected.
They contrast with figurehead presidents, common in most Parliamentary republics, in which the president serves symbolic, nonpolitical roles (and often is appointed to office by parliament) while the prime minister holds all relevant executive power. A small number of nations, most notably South Africa and Botswana have both an executive presidency and a system of governance that is parliamentary in character, with the President elected by and dependent on the confidence of the legislature. In these states, the offices of president and prime minister (as both head of state and head of government respectively) might be said to be combined.
The above examples notwithstanding, executive presidencies are found in presidential systems and semi-presidential systems.
The usual checks and balances on an executive president are through the judicial system, through statutory authorizations and/or prohibitions, and by some legislative body or bodies (Congress, Parliament, Senate). Rarely, an executive president has some powers that are unchecked, which can lead to abuses.
In the corporate environment the “Executive President” is the officer that exercises the majority of control over a company. It is his/her job to lead the company and guide it into a direction of profit and success. They work often with the COO and CFO of the cooperation to govern the company as a whole. At some companies this title is also referred to as CEO, Chief Executive Officer. If a said company has a Board of Directors the Executive President/CEO will often serve as Chairman of the Board.
Famous quotes containing the words executive and/or president:
“One point in my public life: I did all I could for the reform of the civil service, for the building up of the South, for a sound currency, etc., etc., but I never forgot my party.... I knew that all good measures would suffer if my Administration was followed by the defeat of my party. Result, a great victory in 1880. Executive and legislature both completely Republican.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“We must choose. Be a child of the past with all its crudities and imperfections, its failures and defeats, or a child of the future, the future of symmetry and ultimate success.”
—Frances E. Willard 1839–1898, U.S. president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union 1879-1891, author, activist. The Woman’s Magazine, pp. 137-40 (January 1887)