Prime minister
Overview
 
A prime minister is the most senior minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

 of cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

 in the executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...

 branch of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 in a parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....

. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential system
Semi-presidential system
The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...

s of government, a prime minister is the official who is appointed to manage the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

 and execute the directives of the head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

.

In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system
Westminster System
The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of the government and head of the executive branch.
Timeline

1739    War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain.

1812    Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.

1852    Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expands to become Italy.

1867    The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada.

1939    Siam is renamed to Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the country's third prime minister.

1939    Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by ultranationalist members of the Iron Guard.

1940    World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1942    Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1944    World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.

1945    An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.

 
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