Whom do you think have more power- US president or UN secretary general or..
By sudheervm
@sudheervm (210)
India
November 14, 2008 11:16pm CST
Whom do you think have more power-US president or UN secretary general or Bin Laden or Russian President or any one else
2 responses
@evanslf (484)
•
15 Nov 08
Yes it depends how this question is framed. The UN Secretary general is pretty powerless, he can influence sure but it is the key member states of the UN that make the decisions. In the international arena, clearly the US president is the most powerful, he controls much of US foreign policy and America has the greatest weight on international bodies. He is contrained by the Congress to a certain extent, but he is also very much the 'decider' as Bush was fond of saying.
Domestically however, the President has far less power, indeed far less than a British Prime Minister has in the UK. The President is very much constrained by Congress though of course he can issue executive orders, etc. As far as the US domestic policy is concerned, one could argue that the chairman of the Federal reserve has the most power, certainly in economic matters.
1 person likes this
@evanslf (484)
•
15 Nov 08
No, as Bush has found out to his and America's cost. Going unilateraly is often not the best way to achieve things. It can be sometimes necessary, but multilateral action is likely to be far more effective and is the only way to achieve progress to tackle certain issues, global warming and the current financial crisis being examples of this. That said, it is not the UN Sec General that will decide things globally but world leaders coming together, negotiating and achieving a common position. The UN Sec Geneal can certainly assist in bringing world leaders together and can play a useful arbiter / chivvying role, but ultimately it is the world leaders acting together who will determine policy. But of course, with the US being the largest economy in the world, the US will often take a leading role and its voice will carry the most weight but that doesn't mean that having the US President deciding upon 'world' policy is sufficient, far from it.
@sudheervm (210)
• India
15 Nov 08
Then let us think..whats the need for UN.
US president is enough .Am i right?
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
15 Nov 08
More power over whom? If you are talking about power over citizens, The U.N. has ZERO power over any citizen of the united States. In fact, the President does not even have much, most of that power goes to state governments. In fact, the majority of power here in the united states is delegated to the states and to the people of those states.
1 person likes this
@sudheervm (210)
• India
15 Nov 08
But Bush attacked Afghan, Iraq and even killed Saddam despite of the strong oppose from UN. Killing the president of another country can be consider as the power of US over its citizen .????
