| | Head of State - Encyclopedia.WorldSearch (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26) |
 | | A head of state or chief of state is the chief public representative of a nation-state, federation or commonwealth, whose role generally includes personifying the continuity and legitimacy of the state and exercising the political powers, functions and duties granted to the head of state in the country's constitution. |
 | | In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the nominal chief executive officer of the state, possessing theoretical executive power (hence the description of the United Kingdom monarch's government as Her Majesty's Government, a term indicating that the government is theoretically hers, not parliament's). |
 | | A head of state is generally the notional or literal commander-in-chief of a state's armed forces, holding the highest office in all military chains of command. |
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