Alternatives to Head of State and Government

SSJRED

Banned
Hey first post!
Modern political systems often make a distinction between the head of state and head of government. Sometimes these roles are fused in a Presedential system but often in countries with Monarchies and Semi Presidential systems these roles are fufilled by seperate people.
Is it possible for different roles to emerge with similar prestige to the HoS and HoG? And is it possible to have multiple centers of power within the same state?
I'm thinking maybe a seperate head of the military or perhaps a head of Justice similar to the old Lord Choncellor or even an Iranian style religious head.
What other heads could you have? And how might they function within the state? Which roles would be powerful and which would largely become ceromonial?
Thoughts.
 
Religious heads / high priests could have persisted (think of Rome's pontifex maximus), if Christianity had not triumphed with its dual hierarchies. (maybe even with it) Also, don't forget OTL's legislative and judiciary branches. The US supreme court and the German Bundesverfassungsgericht are powerful political institutions, and "high judge" was often the term for a ruler in the past. The chairman of parliament is technically another such head. In states covertly ruled by the military forces, a "generalissimus" is often another head.
 
Most Head of State functions come down to being the last earthly word in law, the penultimate justice. Thus it can depend on how separate religious and secular law are.
Countries with a more homogeneous religious tradition (or at least an overtly dominant one) tend to place religious law closer to secular law and the roles could overlap somewhat. Where secular power is more precarious or diffuse the roles can become more separate.
Power itself also depends not just on decision making but also on the force to ensure it is carried through, at its ultimate this is military force.

So what you are asking depends on how law and decision making are divided up, who has the final authority, and how that authority is backed up. The common divisions are secular/religious, justice/legislation, and political/military. Most stable systems also delegate a fair proportion of each down a hierarchy to enable smooth succession and diffuse confrontation between divisions.
 
Well, you can have :

A Federal head, representing every region on the same level, independant from another one that only cares about the proportion of people.
A Religious head
A Militaristic head, that is the only one to take the decision about armies, and neither the head of state nor the government have the right to intervene
A Union head, with several workers union and a representative stuff and the whole mess that goes with it
A Dynastic head, if the country is a Republic that lets power to the former dynasty (think about Montenegro)

Or something that is linked to a party with special status, and that accounts more than the others
 
Top