History Main / AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil

* {{Justified}} in ''Manga/ArmedGirlsMachiavellism'': the Supreme Five Swords (how the students' council is called at the Private Aiichi Symbiosis Academy) and the Six King Swords (the student council at Aiichi's twin school Hokkai) have a lot of power, including the right to carry ''swords'' on campus... Because the ''headmistress'' is crazy enough to allow it, as the owner finds it convenient for reasons so far unknown. It's shown that while the normal teachers don't dare to interfere with their antics the Supreme Five Swords know who is actually in charge, as the one time the headmistress decides to punish their president and another one they just take the punishment. In a variation, it's stated early on they originated as the ''Disciplinary Committee'', that after Aiichi became co-ed ended up taking up the students' council's duties alongside rule enforcement... Meaning that there may be an actual yet powerless students' council somewhere.
** Hokkai, Aiichi's twin school, has the Six King Swords to fulfill this trope... [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority By being the best fighters in the school]] (it's possible to enter the Six Kings or even become their leader by defeating the incumbent, as the current leader Nonomura and his predecessor both did). The school's owner is the same as Aiichi, explaining the very similar system.

* ''LightNovel/HorizonInTheMiddleOfNowhere'': Aside from mundane school-related tasks, each country's student council also is responsible for the government and military.

* The page image comes from a two chapter hentai called Fudotei Student Academy, the events depicted above prove to be somewhat exaggerated but they apparently do have the authority to dictate weather or not the school's air conditioning can be used and the president is able to make her crush join the council on a whim ([[CoitusEnsues no points for guessing why]]).

* In Victorian Era boarding schools, the "fagging" system gave the senior students almost complete power over their juniors. Under the system, a junior student (the fag) was assigned to act as a servant to an upper-year student (the fagmaster); in return, the upper-year student was held responsible for his charge's welfare and behaviour. The entire system, in turn, was overseen by a group of prefects lead by the Head Boy/Girl. Because adult teachers generally did not concern themselves with the students outside of class except in the most extreme of circumstances, these elder students had almost complete authority over the people under them in terms of settling disputes and administering punishments. Many of these people abused their authority and basically treated their charges as slaves and playthings. The entire system was intentionally created to prepare their students for the harshly hierachical and regimented life in the army and colonial service.

Note that in [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseEducationSystem Japanese schools]], this is an exaggeration of TruthInTelevision, as the Student Councils actually ''do'' have power over the approval and funding of student clubs. SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness is a real thing in Japan, as they're meant to prepare students for the high-pressure work environment into which they'll eventually be dumped, and students are strongly encouraged to join at least one club. And just like in their future jobs, students are expected to show utmost loyalty to their club: once you join, [[ResignationsNotAccepted you're there until you graduate]]. Likewise, in private schools in the United Kingdom, prefect councils often perform the same functions that an honour council fulfills at a university, and any year's prefects are assigned to keep order in the teacher's absence. Are you starting to see the clout Student Council can hold? (More details in the RealLife section below.)

It also isn't exclusive to councils. For example, since a lot of works use a TwoTeacherSchool, cheerleading is usually run by the head cheerleader, when in real life, there would be a coach that comes up with the routines and decides who is on the squad.

** Downplayed with the Prefects (a close equivalent to a student council), who can give and take house points (in early books, anyway) and give detention. The Head Boy and Girl positions, by contrast, seem to be largely honorific.

* Parodied in the GirlsLove one-shot ''You're Lovelier Than A Rose''. It has a few subtle {{Shout Out}}s and kicks to other series, such as ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs''.

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* {{Justified}} in ''Manga/ArmedGirlsMachiavellism'': the Supreme Five Swords (how the students' council is called at the Private Aiichi Symbiosis Academy) and the Six King Swords (the student council at Aiichi's twin school Hokka) have a lot of power, including the right to carry ''swords'' on campus... Because the ''headteachers'' are crazy enough to allow it, as the owner of both schools apparently finds it convenient. It's shown that at least the Supreme Five Swords know who is actually in charge, as the one time their headmistress decides to punish their president and another one they just take the punishment.

This ranks low on the {{authority trope|s}}. For the other lower steps, see ClubPresident and ClassRepresentative. For the enforcers, see YellowSashOfPower. For the next step up, see StudentCouncilPresident.

* In ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', Itsuki's organization [[InvokedTrope creates]] one to fit this trope. The StudentCouncilPresident actually laughs about how ridiculous the premise is... [[BecomingTheMask while slowly getting sucked into acting this way for real]] (This sort of thing happens a lot, due to [[RealityWarper Haruhi's influence]]). Yuki's faction sees it coming and sends in Kimidori to keep things in check. Thus, when the President tries to cause trouble for the SOS Brigade (and overdoes it), the only thing stopping a furious Nagato from killing him is Kimidori's silent reassurance.

* Another example of the student council using their absolute powers for good is ''GakuenSouseiNekoten'', where its members join forces with their cat familiars to fight the minions of an EldritchAbomination to prevent it from being released and sparing mankind from its ancient wrath.

* In ''LightNovel/AsuraCryin'', the student council can give the authorization to kill. Can't get much more powerful than that.

* ''LightNovel/ChromeShelledRegios'': The StudentCouncilPresident is explicitly in charge of the city. Considering that includes its military for fighting giant monsters as well as other cities, that's a pretty big responsibility. He can effectively force students to change their majors if he decides it's in the city's best interest.

* In ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', Itsuki's organization [[InvokedTrope creates]] one to fit this trope. The StudentCouncilPresident actually laughs about how ridiculous the premise is... [[BecomingTheMask while slowly getting sucked into acting this way for real]] (This sort of thing happens a lot, due to [[RealityWarper Haruhi's influence]]).
** Yuki's faction sees it coming and sends in Kimidori to keep things in check. Thus, when the President tries to cause trouble for the SOS Brigade (and overdoes it), the only thing stopping a furious Nagato from killing him is Kimidori's silent reassurance.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Most of the school's politics seemed to be settled through negotiation between the StudentCouncilPresident Souna Sitri and the Occult Research Club President Rias Gremory. Justified, as most of the senior faculty are devils, and direly outranked by the ''de facto'' heads of two of the three great houses. In fact, since both Rias and Souna have older siblings who are Satans, the balance of power for ''the entire Devil faction'' is filtered through Kuoh Academy's school politics.
* ''LightNovel/HorizonInTheMiddleOfNowhere'': Aside from mundane school-related tasks, each country's student council also is responsible for the government and military.

* ''Literature/{{Toradora}}'' plays with and ultimately subverts the trope. The StudentCouncilPresident Sumire certainly ''acts'' like she's absurdly powerful, as she likes to address and bark orders to the student body through a bullhorn and approaches everything about the council with utmost seriousness. But the council itself doesn't have much more power than you'd expect them to have, i.e. planning school events and volunteer activities, and the students in general aren't particularly intimidated by them (indeed, Taiga openly snarks at Sumire during assemblies). It's shown to be SeriousBusiness for those involved, though, especially Sumire and her vice president/successor Yuusaku.

* {{Justified}} in ''Manga/ArmedGirlsMachiavellism'': the Supreme Five Swords (how the students' council is called at the Private Aiichi Symbiosis Academy) and the Six King Swords (the student council at Aiichi's twin school Hokka) have a lot of power, including the right to carry ''swords'' on campus... Because the ''headteachers'' are crazy enough to allow it, as the owner of both schools apparently finds it convenient. It's shown that at least the Supreme Five Swords know who is actually in charge, as the one time their headmistress decides to punish their president and another one they just take the punishment.

* ''Literature/StrawberryPanic'' takes this one and runs with it: the setting involves a complex three-schools-in-one situation, and the student councils and their goings-on are given a great deal of ceremony, and the members are treated like royalty, with just getting to see the Etoile (the one who is above the three {{Student Council President}}s) up close being a longtime dream of many students. When power struggles happen, it is Not Pretty, in a way that's much darker than the show's usual lighthearted tone.
* One of these types of Student Councils appears to be the focus of ''Literature/StudentCouncilsDiscretion'', though they tend to get distracted by ConversationalTroping so often it's a wonder they get anything done.

* In ''Literature/SonOfInterflux'', Simon Irving, as student council treasurer, is able to use school funds to purchase land and, through various means, lead a surprisingly-effective student protest against the eponymous company.
* In ''The Lottery'' by Beth Goobie the council uses threats, bullying, blackmail amongst other methods to maintain its absurd power.

* ''Literature/MyDarkAndFearsomeQueen'': The student council has its own security bureau which investigates teachers for misbehavior.
** Not to mention the DramaClub which has access to the school's master keys and activity bus passes.

* Inverted in "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" by John Powers. At the author's fictional Catholic high school, student council elections are a big unpopularity contest; only the most disliked students (the "fat and ugly kids") get nominated or voted into office. Being elected President of the Student Council is the kiss of death; it means the "winner" is THE most unpopular student in the school.

* In one of ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' books, Stacey tells Kristy that she should run for junior high class president so that she can change the gross school lunches. This isn't actually something a class president would be in control of.

* ''LightNovel/StrawberryPanic'' takes this one and runs with it: the setting involves a complex three-schools-in-one situation, and the student councils and their goings-on are given a great deal of ceremony, and the members are treated like royalty, with just getting to see the Etoile (the one who is above the three {{Student Council President}}s) up close being a longtime dream of many students. When power struggles happen, it is Not Pretty, in a way that's much darker than the show's usual lighthearted tone.
* One of these types of Student Councils appears to be the focus of ''LightNovel/StudentCouncilsDiscretion'', though they tend to get distracted by ConversationalTroping so often it's a wonder they get anything done.

* ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' plays with and ultimately subverts the trope. The StudentCouncilPresident Sumire certainly ''acts'' like she's absurdly powerful, as she likes to address and bark orders to the student body through a bullhorn and approaches everything about the council with utmost seriousness. But the council itself doesn't have much more power than you'd expect them to have, i.e. planning school events and volunteer activities, and the students in general aren't particularly intimidated by them (indeed, Taiga openly snarks at Sumire during assemblies). It's shown to be SeriousBusiness for those involved, though, especially Sumire and her vice president/successor Yuusaku.

Naturally, led by the StudentCouncilPresident. If the student council is not only powerful but more powerful than the adults, then they have a TeenageWasteland.

* Played with in ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris''. Chris runs for class president and wins after promising that he'll do his best to bring actual change, only to be told that he can't actually do any of the things he said he would try to get done (which, according to a flashback, including putting cherry kool-aid in the water fountains). However, after he's impeached and replaced, his replacement immediately succeeds in getting this done.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': While not a student council in the usual sense, [[Characters/WhateleyUniverseSchoolClubsAndCliques the 'Alphas' clique]] generally fills this role, being TheBeautifulElite of Whateley Academy, the movers and shakers of a SuperheroSchool where many of the future's leaders - heroic, villainous, or otherwise - are groomed. Officially, each club and training team is supposed to have a representative in the group. However, in 2005 the group was pretty much hijacked by a group of ChaoticEvil snobs who kicked out anyone who wasn't pretty enough and vicious enough for their tastes. [[spoiler: This group was overthrown in early 2007, so things are getting back to where they should be - for now.]]

-->--''Manga/CLAMPSchoolDetectives''

It also isn’t exclusive to councils. For example, since a lot of works use a TwoTeacherSchool, cheerleading is usually run by the head cheerleader, when in real life, there would be a coach that comes up with the routines and decides who is on the squad.

** The glimpses we see of other schools resisting Honnouji’s imperialist ambitions suggests Satsuki is only slightly more powerful than the usual student council president. Her most dangerous rival, Kaneo Takarada of Naniwa Kinman High School, controls the local economy of Osaka with his family’s personal scrip and bankrolls its citizens as reserves to his school’s own student military. And that’s not getting into his intelligence network of gossipy Osaka grannies, or the PoweredArmor.

* Inverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}''. Flashbacks show that when Ava Crescentia and Kayto Shields were on the student council, they were the only members: Ava’s overbearing leadership drove the rest away. As a result, they were constantly overworked and never got anything done.
** The HighschoolAU DatingSim spinoff ''Sunrider Academy'' further inverts this in Ava’s route, where it’s revealed that no student council in the past ''thirty years'' has managed to do so much as getting a single club budget passed. Previous student council presidents just used the position as a way to get dates.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/YoureNotElectedCharlieBrown'', in which after Linus becomes class president, his attempts to make sweeping changes are met with the principal explaining that he doesn’t really have any significant power.

-->''With elections approaching, student candidates in Lucknow, for example openly supported by national and regional political parties, extorted money and vehicles from businessmen, plastered the city with posters and subjected it to their violent and clamorous will. After elections, elected leaders extorted contracts from the university, particularly the works department, forced entry into all-important university decisions and exacted protection money from government contractors. They also sported the latest cars, had their own gunmen and strode the university overawing and coercing college principals and university vice-chancellors to do their bidding. They did not stop at university authorities, but extorted money and goods from local merchants, ostensibly to “fund student activities”.''

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this to hell and back; Honnouji's student council has created a straight-up fascist state and has the power to annex other schools and execute students. As crazy as this sounds, this is actually more plausible than it seems considering the school is owned by the incredibly wealthy and powerful Kiryuin family, with daughter Satsuki at the head of the student council and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive her mother Ragyo]] willing to [[{{Nepotism}} enable her daughter's project]]. The school is also a Life Fiber research and development facility that cranks out [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. Satsuki herself is pretty open with how the school is run by MightMakesRight and is emulating a military.

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this to hell and back; Honnouji's student council has created a straight-up fascist state and has the power to annex other schools and execute students. As crazy as this sounds, this is actually more plausible than it seems considering the school is owned by the incredibly wealthy and powerful Kiryuin family, with daughter Satsuki at the head of the student council and her mother Ragyo willing to enable her daughter's project. The school is also a Life Fibers research and development facility that cranks out [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. Satsuki herself is pretty open with how the school is run by MightMakesRight and is emulating a military.

* In ''Manga/ArmedGirlsMachiavellism'' the "Tenka Goken" (Supreme Five Swords) act as this at the Private Aiichi Symbiosis Academy, handling the enforcement of rules among the students, to the point [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem a member joined the group with the explicit goal of being able to bring her pet bear at school in spite of the rules forbidding it]], and student passes and carrying ''actual (blunted) swords'' as opposed to [[AxesAtSchool the folding sticks and other lesser weapons carried by the other female students]]. In a variation, they're this only because ''the faculty'' allows it, and [[SubvertedTrope the one time the headmistress is in contrast with two members of the Five Swords the latters fold quickly]].

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* Played with in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'': They have an Absurdly Powerful ''City'' Council instead. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. Everything that occurs in Night Vale is in some way governed by the City Council. It is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years and forces townspeople to vote for them by taking them down into an abandoned mineshaft outside town, doing unknown things to them, and threatening torture and kidnapping of family members. The Council also plays a major role in directing the townspeople's attention away various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, including a mysterious "Glow Cloud" seen hovering around town and raining dead animals, a bloody massacre at the local post office which was accompanied with sounds of "souls being ripped apart by black magic", and the frequent sightings of mysterious figures in black robes lurking around town. The City Council are ''also'' cowards[[note]]or a coward; their status as multiple entities rather than one entity in multiple bodies is questionable[[/note]] who tend to bail out of town during crises and end up being bullied and end up getting bullied into letting Tamika Flynn, a teenage bookworm and militia leader, become the first new councillor since Night Vale's founding when she decides she wants to be one.