Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a governor may be either appointed or elected, and the governor's powers can vary significantly, depending on the public laws in place locally. The adjective pertaining to a governor is gubernatorial, from the Latin root gubernare. In a federated state, the governor may serve as head of state and head of government for their regional polity, while still operating under the laws of the federation, which has its own head of state for the entire federation.
Ancient empires
Pre-Roman empires
Though the legal and administrative framework of provinces, each administered by a governor, was created by the Romans, the term governor has been a convenient term for historians to describe similar systems in antiquity. Indeed, many regions of the pre-Roman antiquity were ultimately replaced by Roman 'standardized' provincial governments after their conquest by Rome. Plato used the metaphor of turning the Ship of State with a rudder; the Latin word for rudder is gubernaculum.Ancient Egypt
In Pharaonic times, the governors of each of the various provinces in the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt are usually known by the Greek word "nomarch," which was later used by historians. Similarly, the term "Haty-a" was referenced in inscriptions found in tombs, including those of Ankhtifi and Djefaihapi. The Early Dynastic Period saw the establishment of the institution of nomarchs, who were first appointed by the pharaoh to guarantee allegiance, but by the late Old Kingdom, these positions had become hereditary, promoting regional autonomy that grew during the First Intermediate Period and weakened central authority.Pre- and Hellenistic satraps
- Media and Achaemenid Persia introduced the satrapy, probably inspired by the Assyrian / Babylonian examples
- Alexander the Great and equally Hellenistic diadoch kingdoms, mainly Seleucids and Lagids
- in later Persia, again under Iranian dynasties:
- * Parthia
- * the Sassanid dynasty dispensed with the office after Shapur I, replacing them with petty vassal rulers, known as shahdars
Ancient Rome
Under the Republic and the early Empire, however, a governor also commanded military forces in his province. Republican governors were all men who had served in senior magistracies in Rome in the previous year, and carried related titles as governor. The first emperor, Octavianus Augustus, divided the provinces into two categories; the traditionally prestigious governorships remained as before, while in a range of others, he retained the formal governorship himself, delegating the actual task of administration to appointees. The legatus sometimes would appoint a prefect, usually a man of equestrian rank, to act as his deputy in a subregion of the larger province: the infamous character of Pontius Pilate in the Christian Gospels was a governor of this sort.
A special case was Egypt, a rich 'private' domain and vital granary, where the emperor almost inherited the theocratic status of a pharaoh. The emperor was represented there by a governor sui generis styled praefectus augustalis, a title evoking the religious cult of the emperor.
Emperors Diocletian and Constantine in the third and fourth centuries AD carried out a root and branch reorganisation of the administration with two main features:
- Provinces were divided up and became much more numerous ; they were then grouped into dioceses, and the dioceses in turn into four praetorian prefectures ;
- Military responsibilities were removed from governors and given to new officials called comes rei militaris or dux, later also magister militum.
Byzantium
This system survived with few significant changes until the collapse of the empire in the West, and in the East, the breakdown of order with the Persian and Arab invasions of the seventh century. At that stage, a new kind of governor emerged, the Strategos. It was a role leading the themes which replaced provinces at this point, involving a return to the amalgamation of civil and military office which had been the practice under the Republic and the early Empire.Legacy
While the Roman administration in the West was largely destroyed in the barbarian invasions, its model was remembered; this model became very influential through two particular vehicles: Roman law and the Christian Church.Holy Roman/Habsburg Empires and successor states
- Reichskommissar
Turkish rule
British Empire and Commonwealth realms
In the British Empire, a governor was originally an official appointed by the British monarch to oversee a crown colony and was the head of the colonial administration. The governors' powers varied from colony to colony, depending on its constitutional setup; while all colonies had a separate court system, the governor only had legislative power in colonies that lacked a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly. The executive powers vested in the governor varied as well; while many colonies had an Executive Council to help with the colony's administration, these ranged from presidential cabinet-like bodies that only served as consultative forums without collective executive powers or functions of their own while the governor had an independent decision-making capacity, to fully fledged parliamentary ministries whose decisions the governor was required to formally execute.Today, crown colonies of the United Kingdom continue to be administered by governors who hold varying degrees of power. Because of the different constitutional histories of the former colonies of the United Kingdom, the term governor now refers to officials with differing amounts of power.
Administrators, commissioners and high commissioners exercise similar powers to governors..
Frequently the name 'Government House' is given to governors' residences.
Vice-regal governors
United Kingdom overseas territories
In the United Kingdom's remaining overseas territories, the governor is normally a direct appointee of the British government and plays an active role in governing and lawmaking. The governor's chief responsibility is for the defence and external affairs of the colony.In some minor overseas territories, instead of a governor, there is an administrator or commissioner, or the position is held ex officio by a High Commissioner.
Australia
In Australia, each state has the governor as its formal representative of the sovereign, as head of the state government. It is not a political office but a ceremonial one. Each state governor is appointed by the Australian monarch on the advice of the premier, who is the political chief executive of the state government. State governors have emergency reserve powers but these are rarely used. The territories of Australia other than the ACT have administrators instead of governors, who are appointed formally by the governor-general. The governor-general is the representative of and appointed by the king of Australia sovereign at a federal level on the advice of the prime minister of Australia.As with the governors-general of Australia and other Commonwealth realms, state governors usually exercise their power only on the advice of a government minister.
Canada
In Canada, there are governors at the federal and provincial levels of government who, within their jurisdictions, act as representatives of the king of Canada, who is Canada's head of state. The federal governor is the governor general of Canada, and the governor of each province is the lieutenant governor. The governor general is appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister of Canada, whereas the lieutenant governors are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. The role of the governor general and of the lieutenant governors in Canada is largely ceremonial, although they do retain the authority to exercise reserve powers in exceptional circumstances.Each of the three territories is headed by a commissioner appointed by the federal Cabinet. Unlike provincial lieutenant governors, they are not representatives of the sovereign but rather are representatives of the federal government.