A governor is a public official who governs the executive branch of a sub-national government, ranking below the head of state. In federations, governors may be either elected or appointed to lead constituent states and have varying levels of power depending on the political system, from nominal roles to complete control over government. While titles like president are more common in some nations, governor remains the standard term for sub-national executive officials in countries like Mexico, the United States, and Switzerland. Historically, the title was also used for company representatives granted sovereignty over colonial territories. Non-political governors also exist to lead institutions like corporations, banks, prisons, and schools.
A governor is a public official who governs the executive branch of a sub-national government, ranking below the head of state. In federations, governors may be either elected or appointed to lead constituent states and have varying levels of power depending on the political system, from nominal roles to complete control over government. While titles like president are more common in some nations, governor remains the standard term for sub-national executive officials in countries like Mexico, the United States, and Switzerland. Historically, the title was also used for company representatives granted sovereignty over colonial territories. Non-political governors also exist to lead institutions like corporations, banks, prisons, and schools.
A governor is a public official who governs the executive branch of a sub-national government, ranking below the head of state. In federations, governors may be either elected or appointed to lead constituent states and have varying levels of power depending on the political system, from nominal roles to complete control over government. While titles like president are more common in some nations, governor remains the standard term for sub-national executive officials in countries like Mexico, the United States, and Switzerland. Historically, the title was also used for company representatives granted sovereignty over colonial territories. Non-political governors also exist to lead institutions like corporations, banks, prisons, and schools.
A governor is, in most cases, a public official with the power to govern the executive branch of a
non-sovereign or sub-national level of government, ranking under the head of state.
In federations, governor may be the title of the politician who governs a constituent stateand may be either appointed or elected. The power of the individual governor can vary dramatically between political systems, with some governors having only nominal, largely ceremonial power, while others have complete power over the entire government. The title Governor is less common in parliamentary systems such as in some European nations and many of their former colonies, which use titles such as President of the Regional Council in France, President of the Regional Junta (commonly called Governatore in recent years) in Italy and Ministerprsident in Germany, where in some states there are governorates (German: Regierungsbezirke) as sub-state administrative regions. Other countries using different titles for sub-national units include Mexico, United States and Switzerland. Historically, the title can also apply to executive officials acting as representatives of a chartered company which has been granted exercise of sovereignty in a colonial area, such as the British East India Company or the Dutch East India Company. These companies operate as a major state within a state with its own armed forces. There can also be non-political governors: high-ranking officials in private or similar governance such as commercial and non-profit management, styled governor(s), who simply govern an institution, such as a corporation or a bank. For example, in the United Kingdomand other Commonwealth countries there are prison governors ("wardens" in the United States), school governors and bank governors. The adjective pertaining to a governor is gubernatorial, from the Latin root gubernare.[1] The historical female form is governess, though female officials are referred to by the gender-neutral form governor (without the gender specific suffix) of the noun to avoid confusion withother meanings of the term.