Contemporary republics exist in three main forms: 1. Presidential republics - President is both head of state and head of government. No Prime Minister. Exampl

Contemporary republics exist in three main forms: 1. Presidential republics - President is both head of state and head of government. No Prime Minister. Examples: US, most Latin American countries 2. Parliamentary republics - President is head of state, Prime Minister is head of government. President is mostly a symbolic figurehead with little real power; if they have any real power at all, it is generally only exercisable in times of constitutional crisis. Examples: Ireland, Malta, Germany, Austria, Israel 3. Semi-presidential republics. President is head of state, Prime Minister is head of government. Both have real substantive powers. Often, the PM is in charge of domestic policy, the President is in charge of military and foreign affairs. Examples: France, Russia, Finland (traditionally at least, it has been becoming more parliamentary) Montenegro is officially considered parliamentary not semipresidential. However, the boundary between the two is not always clearcut - there is a near infinity of ways to divide power between a President and PM, and some parliamentary republics have much more powerful presidents than others There are also oddball republics which don’t fit into any of those categories, like Switzerland (collective head of state) or San Marino (two equal heads of state at the same time)