Russian governors and U.S. governors are both governors, but the powers of governors in the two countries are different, and the powers of U.S. governors are much greater than those of Russian governors.
Russia and the United States now have a federal political system, but the political systems and local administrative systems of the two countries are very different, which means that the scope of governorship of the two countries will be different.
So what is the difference between the two?We can analyze it from three aspects::
First: there is a federal district supervision and management above the states of Russia, and above the states of the United States is the federation**;
Unlike most countries in the world, Russia has 89 federal entities at the state level and 8 federal districts. The 85 federal subjects include 50 oblasts, 22 republics, 9 territories, 4 autonomous regions, 3 federal municipalities and 1 autonomous oblast, which are divided into 8 federal districts by region.
For example, the Russian Far Eastern Federal District has 10 federal subjects, including Magadan Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatka Krai, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Sakha Republic. The head of the Far Eastern Federal District is the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Federation to the Far Eastern Federal District, whose main function is to supervise and manage the administration of the 10 federal subjects within the jurisdiction, including the governor, the chief executive of the region, and the chief executive of the autonomous republic, and to ensure that the directives of the Russian Federation are implemented in each federal subject.
This shows that the political status of the ** plenipotentiaries of the federal districts is higher than that of the governors.
However, this is not the case in the United States, where the 50 states together constitute the federal subjects, and beyond that, they belong to the United States
In many federal countries, including the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, the state is the highest level of local administrative divisions in the country, unlike Russia, which also adds a federal district above the state level, which virtually reduces the status of local states in Russia.
Therefore, from this point of view, the states under the federal ** of the United States correspond to the federal districts under the ** of the Russian Federation, and the local states of Russia do not belong to the same level as the states of the United States.
Second: the appointment and dismissal of Russian governors requires ** approval, and the appointment and removal of US governors occurs on their own;
In the eight years before 2012, Russia canceled the gubernatorial election, and the power to appoint and remove the governor was in the hands of the federal government. Take, for example, the current Russian Defense Minister, Senior General Shoigu, who was promoted to Governor of the Moscow Region in May 2012 by then-Dmitry Medvedev** in his post as Minister of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation.
Two months later, however, in July, Russia reintroduced the system of electing governors. From this moment on, elections for local governors in Russia can be contested by multiple political parties, just like a campaign. For example, in the 2015 gubernatorial election of the Irkutsk Oblast under the jurisdiction of the Siberian Federal District, Levchenko, a candidate from the Communist Party of Russia, won the gubernatorial election, becoming the first opposition party member to defeat the candidate of the Russian ruling party "United Russia" and successfully elected governor after the resumption of direct gubernatorial elections.
Although Russia has lost the right to appoint and dismiss governors, the resignation or approval of governors requires the consent of the Russian Federation, and it also has the power to dispatch governors across regions and to appoint governors temporarily after vacancies.
For example, the Arkhangelsk Oblast of the North-Western Federal Territory, because of the oblast's ineffective handling of the epidemic prevention and control work, was severely criticized by the Russian ruling party, although the governor did not publicly resign, but the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Orlov, was self-aware and took the initiative to resign as governor, which was quickly approved by Putin.
In addition, in 2018, the election results of the election of the Primorsky Governor of the Far Eastern Federal District were invalid and had to be re-elected, so Putin urgently appointed Kozhemyako, the governor of the Sakhalin region of the district, as the Primorsky Governor of the Primorsky Territory ** to fill the management vacuum of the Primorsky Territory.
For the election of governors in the United States, as in Russia, all parties need to put forward candidates to run. It's just that unlike Russia, neither Republican nor Democratic candidates need the approval of the United States to win the governor's office, nor can they interfere in gubernatorial elections or appointments and dismissals, let alone transfer the governor of New York to the governor of California across state lines.
At the same time, if the governor of the United States wants to resign, he does not need to ask the United States** whether he agrees. Take former New York Governor Cuomo as an example, he and Biden ** belong to the same Democratic camp, because Cuomo has been frequently accused of sex scandals, many people, including Biden**, have publicly called for Governor Cuomo to resign. In this case, no matter how much Biden hates Cuomo, he has no right to remove Cuomo from the governorship, and can only wait for Governor Cuomo to leave his post on his own initiative or be removed by the New York State Assembly.
Therefore, compared with the power to appoint and remove US governors and Russian governors, the power of US governors is harder, while Russian governors are partially limited.
Thirdly, the Russian governor and ** belong to the subordinate relationship, and the US governor and ** belong to the equal relationship;
In Russia, local governors are required to report to the federation on a regular basis, and they will also take the initiative to contact a local governor to make work arrangements. For example, in the early days of the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the epidemic spread rapidly in the Russian capital, and Putin urgently convened a meeting of governors and sternly warned the governors that if serious consequences were caused by the delay in the epidemic, they would face heavy responsibility for the crime of dereliction of duty and face heavy responsibility, with a maximum sentence of 7 years in prison.
From this aspect alone, it can be seen that although ** and the governor are elected by the people, the local governor is not only responsible for the state, but also responsible for **, which reflects the subordinate relationship between the Russian ** and the governor.
In the United States, there will be no warnings to governors, but there will be governors who resist orders.
The most typical example is the issue of wearing masks. On the first day of Biden's inauguration, he issued an executive order to mandate mask-wearing for the whole of the United States, but he did not expect that 16 Republican governor-run states such as South Dakota and Oklahoma categorically rejected Biden's order.
Because in the eyes of the governors, except for a very small number of powers such as foreign affairs and national defense, the governors and ** are equal in the governance of other administrative affairs, and the governor is the supreme governor of the state, and the orders of the state are not easy to use.
In addition, the fact that each state in the United States has a constitution and a state flag can also reflect the delicate equality relationship between the local states and the federation.
Therefore, from the above three factors, the US governor has more power than the Russian governor, and is less limited.