gambit
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Like our Japanese member said that the Emperor is head of state, so I will elaborate a bit more.If Japanese emperor is not politically affiliated, why does he meet foreign political leaders regularly ?
The 'head of state' could be a hereditary monarchy, or politically elected like a President. The 'head of government' is the office that actually manages the institutions and functions of the government, such as Department/Ministry of Defense or Department of State or Ministry of Finance, and so on.
For example...
- France's head of state is the President who is Francois Hollande and head of government is Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
- Spain's head of state is King Felipe VI and head of government is Mariano Rajoy.
There are exceptions...
- The United States of America's head of state and head of government is President Barack Obama.
- The Swiss Confederation's head of state and head of government is the Federal Council. So even though the President of the Swiss Confederation is Didier Burkhalter, because the position is annually rotated among the council members, it make the Federal Council technically the head of state and head of government for the Swiss. In this respect, the President of the Swiss Confederation is non-democratically elected.
So when you have a clear distinction of offices and roles, the head of state should always be above the political playground. He/she represents the entire nation regardless of the amount of political parties and conflicts among them.