Dictionary:

executive

  (ĭg-zĕk'yə-tĭv)

1. A person or group having administrative or managerial authority in an organization.
2. The chief officer of a government, state, or political division.
3. The branch of government charged with putting into effect a country's laws and the administering of its functions.
4. Computer Science. A set of coded instructions designed to process and control other coded instructions.

1. Of, relating to, capable of, or suited for carrying out or executing: an advisory body lacking executive powers.
2. Having, characterized by, or relating to administrative or managerial authority: the executive director of a drama troupe; executive experience and skills.
3. Of or relating to the branch of government charged with the execution and administration of the nation's laws.

[Middle English, to be carried out, from Old French exécutif, from executer, to carry out. See execute.]

Refers to an operating system or only to the operating system's kernel.

Employee in a top-level management position; person who has major decision-making authority in an organization. Many executives in the private sector receive Incentive Pay, such as bonuses.

noun

A person having administrative or managerial authority in an organization: administrant, administrator, director, manager, officer, official. Informal exec. See over/under.

adjective

Of, for, or relating to administration or administrators: administrative, directorial, managerial, ministerial, supervisory. See over/under.

The branch of government concerned with the execution of policy. Three types of executive may be distinguished. Authoritarian executives vary in form according to the circumstances in which they were created and developed, but are distinctive by virtue of their powers being constrained only by the limits of the will of their members and the limits of the force at their disposal to impose that will on subject peoples. The presidential executive of the United States, which has developed in spite of the United States Constitution, is composed of ministers and senior officials appointed by and headed by the President. The President has ultimate say on the policies advocated by the executive branch. However, following the separation of powers principle, presidential authority is constrained by a separately elected congress and by an independent judiciary whose duty it is to see that executive action is not contrary to the articles of the Constitution. The parliamentary executive, typified by the United Kingdom, is based upon the principle of cabinet government. In this ministers are appointed and headed by a prime minister but all executive decisions are collectively made and members of cabinet are collectively answerable to the legislature from which they are drawn and whose continued support they need to stay in office.

In practice the focus of executive decision-making both within presidential and parliamentary systems is more diverse than this would suggest. Presidential government is marked by the decentralization of decision-making within the executive branch, and by a reliance on congressional support. Analysts have observed the importance of iron triangles of executive agencies, congressional committees, and key interest groups, agreement between which is crucial to the effective formulation and implementation of policy. Such networks are highly fragmented between different policy areas, making policy co-ordination difficult if not impossible. Presidential power is greatest in the initial period of a new incumbent's tenure when public opinion may be mobilized on the back of election victory euphoria to the attainment of key election pledges. At other times presidential initiative is concentrated on the framing of the annual budget and the prosecution of foreign policy, success in which against potential opposition in Congress is again dependent upon mobilization of public opinion and successful relations with congressional leaders. Significant impediments to presidential success have been the tendency for a President to be faced with a congress dominated by the rival party and for both parties to exhibit poor cohesion in policy aims, meaning that even a Democrat President working with a Democrat-controlled Congress will find it difficult to achieve success. Of course, policy initiatives originating in Congress may also be, and frequently have been, blocked by the President. The incoherence of executive authority in practice continues to provide grounds for believing that, particularly in domestic policy, effective government has been sacrificed to the preservation of the separation of powers principle underpinning the Constitution.

Parliamentary systems of government are also marked by a considerable range of executive decision-making foci, even in the United Kingdom. Many decisions are indeed taken by the cabinet, or cabinet committees in the name of the cabinet. However, with the growth of government, considerable executive authority has also been exercised by individual ministers at departmental level, or senior officials acting in their name; ministers whose remit covers more than one department of government; two ministers, generally one from a spending department and one from the Treasury, who bilaterally agree upon policy; more than two ministers from different departments who have a common concern which need not be put up to the Cabinet; and party business managers, who may wield significant influence over the Prime Minister. Where policy is decided at departmental level by ministers or officials it is also common to find selected interest groups being invited into the decision-making process either formally or informally. The role of political advisers has increased since the 1960s. The rapid turnover in ministerial appointments, which means that few ministers occupy the same position for more than two years, contrasts with the permanence of the civil servants. Hence, it may be suggested that if executive government is not highly fragmented, then it may be highly departmentalist. Those analysts who in turn view the senior civil service as highly cohesive in its strategic aims may go further and say that in practice real executive authority lies with unelected officials,

Solutions to the problems of executive government in liberal democracies rest uneasily upon a reliance on institutional modernization from above and greater opportunities for citizen participation from below. Whilst executives work in an age of big government they will continue to face the inevitable tensions between a small group of elected individuals attempting to control executive authority in a manner accountable to citizens and the limited capacity of those individuals to carry out executive government efficiently.

— Jonathan Bradbury

For more information on executive, visit Britannica.com.

n.

An officer of the Government, whose duty it is to enforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as the judicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and of no effect. Following is an extract from an old book entitled, The Lunarian Astonished -- Pfeiffer & Co., Boston, 1803:

    LUNARIAN:  Then when your Congress has passed a law it goes 
        directly to the Supreme Court in order that it may at once be 
        known whether it is constitutional?
    TERRESTRIAN:  O no; it does not require the approval of the 
        Supreme Court until having perhaps been enforced for many 
        years somebody objects to its operation against himself -- I 
        mean his client.  The President, if he approves it, begins to 
        execute it at once.
    LUNARIAN:  Ah, the executive power is a part of the legislative.  
        Do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances 
        that they enforce?
    TERRESTRIAN:  Not yet -- at least not in their character of 
        constables.  Generally speaking, though, all laws require the 
        approval of those whom they are intended to restrain.
    LUNARIAN:  I see.  The death warrant is not valid until signed by 
        the murderer.
    TERRESTRIAN:  My friend, you put it too strongly; we are not so 
        consistent.
    LUNARIAN:  But this system of maintaining an expensive judicial 
        machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they 
        have long been executed, and then only when brought before the 
        court by some private person -- does it not cause great 
        confusion?
    TERRESTRIAN:  It does.
    LUNARIAN:  Why then should not your laws, previously to being 
        executed, be validated, not by the signature of your 
        President, but by that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
        Court?
    TERRESTRIAN:  There is no precedent for any such course.
    LUNARIAN:  Precedent.  What is that?
    TERRESTRIAN:  It has been defined by five hundred lawyers in three 
        volumes each.  So how can any one know?

Quotes:

"An executive is a man who decides; sometimes he decides right, but always he decides." - John H. Patterson

"The functions of an executive are to create and enforce policies rather than working out problems resulting from such policies." - Louis F. Musil

"An executive is a man who can make quick decisions and is sometimes right." - Elbert Hubbard

Executive may refer to:

• Executive (government), a branch of government or local authority
• Executive order, is an edict issued by a member of the executive branch of a government
• Executive system (or executive functions), the brain processes involved in high-order cognition
• Executive car, a size of car
• Architecture of Windows NT#Executive, an internal part of modern Microsoft Windows
• Corporate title, also known as a corporate executive is a manager in a corporation
• Executive format, a special paper size in the United States and Canada
• The Executive, a fictional belt-less rain coat in the American sitcom Seinfeld
• Executive, a Lebanese newsmagazine

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - ledende, luksus-, direktør-, udøvende
n. - leder, hovedbestyrelse, ledelse, udøvende myndighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
uitvoerende macht, leidinggevend kantoor/ persoon, leidinggevend, uitvoerend, executief

Français (French)
adj. - exécutif, d'exécution, de la direction, administratif (un cadre), (US, Can, Pol) à huis clos (séance parlementaire), (Ind, etc) de cadre, de direction, haut-de-gamme, (classe) affaires, (gadget) de bureau
n. - (Admin, Ind) cadre supérieur, cadre moyen, bureau, (pouvoir) exécutif

Deutsch (German)
n. - Exekutive, leitender Angestellter, Vorstand
adj. - leitend, geschäftsführend

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διευθυντής, διευθυντικό, διοικητικό ή ανώτερο στέλεχος, (η) εκτελεστική εξουσία
adj. - εκτελεστικός, διοικητικός

Italiano (Italian)
esecutivo, dirigente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - executivo (m), poder (m) executivo, administrador (m)
adj. - executivo

Русский (Russian)
исполнитель, исполнительная власть

Español (Spanish)
adj. - ejecutivo
n. - poder ejecutivo, funcionario ejecutivo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - verkställande myndighet, företagsledare
adj. - verkställande, administrativ

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
执行的, 有执行权的, 执行者, 经理主管人员

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 執行的, 有執行權的
n. - 執行者, 經理主管人員

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 집행력이 있는
n. - 행정부, 간부, 집행 위원회

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 実行の, 行政上の, 管理職の
n. - 経営者, 行政官, 行政部, 行政府, 執行部

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مدير (صفه) تنفيذي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ביצועי, של ביצוע‬
n. - ‮מנהל, מנהלה, מינהל, מוציא לפועל, הוועד הפועל‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.