The State Council, the highest executive body, is composed of the president, the prime minister, the heads of executive ministries, and ministers without portfolio.
Most heads of executive departments are elected rather than appointed, and the executive branch includes the governor, the lieutenant governor, and several other officials, all of whom are elected to four-year terms.
John F. Manning, a Harvard law professor, said there may be little difference in practice between such views because the president can fire heads of executive agencies, so they are likely to obey his wishes.
It is composed of the heads of executive departments chosen by the president with the consent of the Senate, but the members do not hold seats in Congress, and their tenure, like that of the president himself, does not depend on favourable votes on administration measures in the national legislature.
-- From a White House Memo for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies; SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government.
"The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails," reads a memorandum from Obama to the heads of executive departments and agencies.
President Obama, trying to reverse these actions, sent a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies in 2008 making clear his commitment to the integrity of scientific results.
In the first months of his Presidency, Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies stating that, "The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions," and calling for "transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking".
"On average, pay levels have moderated," said Doug Friske, the global head of executive compensation consulting at Towers Watson, a human resource consulting firm in New York.
Andrew White, the head of executive training at Oxford University's Saïd business school says many of the CEOs he speaks to are "searching for purpose but are feeling stuck and disillusioned.
