Everything about Speaker Politics totally explained
The term
speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the procedures of the house. The speaker often also represents the body in his or her person, as the voice of the body in ceremonial and some other situations.
As a parliamentary title it's typically
Anglo-Saxon, first recorded in the English parliament for
Thomas de Hungerford in 1377; in most other cultures other styles are used, mainly translations of
Chairman or
President.
Many bodies also have a
Speaker pro Tempore or temporary Speaker designated to fill in when the Speaker isn't available.
UK and "Westminster system" countries
In many nations, especially those with the
Westminster System of government, the position of Speaker, modelled after the
office in the
British House of Commons, is ideally scrupulously politically neutral and isn't concerned with substantive issues. In the event of a tie, the speaker is permitted to vote but only according to established conventions. In most cases the speaker is elected from among the members of the assembly by the members, and
whips are not allowed to be among the selection. In the UK, a speaker is normally chosen from one of the two largest parties on an alternate basis, however this convention was broken with the election of
Michael Martin as speaker as he and the previous incumbent,
Betty Boothroyd, were both been members of the Labour Party. The current Speaker of the
Canadian House of Commons,
Peter Milliken, is a member of the Official Opposition.
Despite being an impartial position, the Speaker in a Westminster system parliament has to stand for re-election if he wishes to stay. In the
Republic of Ireland the Speaker (
Ceann Comhairle) is deemed to have been elected if he seeks re-election; in the
United Kingdom it's a
constitutional convention that no major party will put up a candidate against the 'Speaker seeking re-election'. However in 2005 the
Scottish National Party put up a candidate against the incumbent speaker (
Michael Martin).
United States
In the United States, in the
House of Representatives and in state legislatures and local government councils, the speaker is usually selected by the members of the majority party and functions as a leader of that party. Thus, though the speaker is expected to be fair, he or she uses procedural rulings to advance the causes and agenda of his or her own party. Ceremonially, the speaker may represent the whole house, but politically he or she's the legislative voice of the party in power.
There is one prominent case of a speaker who isn't presiding officer. The
New York City Council, the unicameral legislative body for
New York City, has as its presiding officer the
Public Advocate, a position formerly known as City Council President, who is elected by all the voters of the city. As the public advocate's role has changed with several city charter revisions, a post of Council Speaker was created. The speaker is, effectively,
majority leader of the council.
According to the
federal succession statute currently in effect, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress is second in line for succession to the presidency; should the president and vice president be unable to serve, the speaker would become president. Some scholars, however, have argued that this provision of the succession statute is unconstitutional.
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is currently
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is the first woman ever to serve as Speaker.
Similar posts
The presiding officer for an
upper house of a
bicameral legislature usually has a different title, although he or she's substantially the same duties. For example, in the
United States, the federal
Vice President is the constitutionally-designated President of the
Senate, the upper house of Congress. Hence, the President of the United States begins his speeches to joint sessions of Congress addressing "Mr. President," meaning his own vice president as chair of the Senate. In practice, however, modern vice presidents almost never take the chair except on certain state occasions or to break a tie.
Similarly, most
U.S. states have bicameral state legislatures with the lower house (variously called the House of Representatives, Assembly, or House of Delegates) led by a speaker, and the upper house (invariably called the Senate) led by a president
Other examples of upper houses whose presiding officer is referred to as a president include those of
Australia and
Chile.
This pattern isn't universal, however. Some upper houses, including that of
Canada and several States in the United States, including
Tennessee, have a speaker.
In the
United Kingdom, the presiding officer of the
House of Lords was until recently the
Lord Chancellor, who was also a member of the government (a cabinet member) and the head of the judicial branch. The chancellor didn't have the same authority to discipline members of the Lords that the speaker of the Commons has in that house. (On
4 July 2006 the office was reformed, and
Baroness Haymen, the first "
Lord Speaker", took to the
woolsack.) (The office of Lord Chancellor remains, though with a modified role and duties.)
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