History Main / AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil

** justified by the fact that the president is the leader of Heaven's Riches, (and therefore the most powerful person in the martial arts community) and there are no teachers at all.

In real life, power in [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEducationalSystem United States]] schools is in the hands of the principal and faculty and the school district; and, of course, these are subordinate to the power of state and federal courts. In [[UsefulNotes/BritishEducationSystem England and Wales]] it lies with the Headteacher, the Board of Governors and the Local Education Authority. Other jurisdictions, including Scotland, may have their own arrangements. To create the illusion of students having power over their lives at school, student councils are forged. In truth, these groups are largely figurehead posts: the only real power they have is superficial, and the only benefit is a student council slot on your college application under "extracurricular activities" and an extra picture in the yearbook.

* Remember that bit about how ''vitally important'' school clubs are in Japan? The Student Council in the ''BinanKoukouChikyuuBoueibuLove'' manga shuts them down at seemingly random, and one of the plot threads deals with their ongoing efforts against the Earth Defense Club, which they loathe (the titular ''Bouei-bu''). Their StudentCouncilPresident, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Kinshirou Kusatsu]], tears into anyone he even ''suspects'' of breaking rules. They also get hefty privileges - {{Custom Uniform}}s, a fancy office, even a fancy table of their own in the cafeteria. And did we mention they're also bent on WorldDomination, and are the main opponents of the [[MagicalGirl Magical Boys]] in the Defense Club?

* While the student council at [[KOn Sakuragaoka]] seems to have normal levels of power, the perception is certainly referred to:

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this [[UpToEleven 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, it is ''slightly'' justified by the fact that the school is owned by the incredibly wealthy and powerful Kiryuin family, with daughter Satsuki at the head of the student council. Said family also has extensive access to Life Fibers, which they use to create [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. Satsuki herself has a sword that can defeat said uniforms by itself, and a special uniform, called a Kamui, which is far more powerful than the rest, matched only by the protagonist's own Kamui and a special sword of her own.

* ''SydneyWhite'' applies this to the Student Council of a university with the AlphaBitch as the StudentCouncilPresident.
* ''AnotherCountry'' runs on this trope, but on the not-unjustified premise of the power that prefects had in early 20th-Century British boarding schools.

* The teachers in the 1992 BoardingSchool movie ''SchoolTies,'' a crib sheet is found on the floor during an exam and the teachers ''tell the students'' to form their own [[KangarooCourt impromptu hearing]] to decide which one of them was cheating. The [[InformedJudaism token Jewish]] protagonist [[TheScapegoat is seized]] upon by a JokerJury of [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Anti-Semitic]] schoolboys. The {{Anvilicious}} tone of the scene is HilariousInHindsight once you consider [[Creator/DickWolf who wrote the movie.]]
* In the feature film ''PinchRunner'' (starring the J-Pop group "Morning Musume") a character fakes a suicide attempt in the girls' bathroom. She is "treated" in the school nurse's office by a classmate who is a sort of junior-trainee doctor, with the rest of the Track and Field Club in attendance. Despite the liters upon liters of fake blood splashed all over the bathroom, the nurse's office, and three different girls' uniforms -- and all seven students apparently skip class for the rest of the school day -- there is no indication that the adults at the {{two teacher school}} (or the girls' parents, for that matter) ever learn of the affair.
* ''TheHairyBird'':

Note that in [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseEducationSystem Japan]], this is an exaggeration of TruthInTelevision, as the Student Councils actually ''do'' have power over the approval ''and funding'' of student clubs. ''[[SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness School Clubs Are Serious Business]]'', 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. And just like in their future jobs, students are expected to show utmost loyalty to their club: once you join, [[ResignationsNotAccepted you're there for life]]. Likewise, in private schools in the United Kingdom, prefect councils often perform the same functions that an honor (honour?) council fulfills at a university, and a class's prefects are assigned to keep order in the teacher's absence. Are you starting to see the clout Student Council can hold?

In terms of rank, about the only [[AuthorityTropes authority trope]] arguably as low as this is the {{Landlord}}. For the other lower steps, see ClubPresident and ClassRepresentative. For the enforcers, see YellowSashOfPower. For the next step up, see StudentCouncilPresident.

* This seems to be common in {{yuri}}.

** ''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 [[StudentCouncilPresident Student Council Presidents]]) 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.

* ''Anime/ManabiStraight'' is a {{deconstruction}} of this, about a group of girls TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture who are newly forming a Student Council. A theme of the series seems to be that kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore and the notion of an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil takes itself far, far too seriously.

* Subverted in ''WeissKreuz [[OddlyNamedSequel Gluhen]]'': Koua Academy seems to have an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil in the form of "S Class," an elite group of students who, led by EnfantTerrible Toudou, get away with murder and at one point openly declare their control over the school. They get a rude awakening 6 or 7 episodes in when [[spoiler: Toudou discovers he is the TomatoInTheMirror, has a FreakOut, and is murdered by his creator]], after which the protagonists get down to the business of ferreting out TheManBehindTheMan and The Man ''Behind'' TheManBehindTheMan from among the faculty and founders of the academy.
* Played with in ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5''. Karen, the StudentCouncilPresident for the school's realistically (i.e. not at all) powerful student council, spends a whole episode trying to meet the requests of the student body, who seem to ''think'' they have an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil that can acquire money and resources at will.

* The one-shot {{yaoi}} manga ''Bondage'' is about this. A male student constantly breaks the school rules about smoking and fighting, and is... punished for it every time by the two (male) student council members.

* The Public Safety Commission from ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' was originally a good, necessary institution that suffered heavily from MotiveDecay. Now they're comparable to the {{yakuza}} who abuse their literal license to kill, and none of the faculty does anything about them. It's only after Tsukune and the members of his UnwantedHarem stand up to and defeat their leader Kuyou that the members finally get their just desserts. [[spoiler: Later it was revealed that the Kuyou was in fact a member of [[AntiHumanAlliance Fairy Tale]] spying on the academy, which might explain some of why it got so evil]].

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerates]] this [[UpToEleven 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, it is ''slightly'' justified by the fact that the school is owned by the incredibly wealthy and powerful Kiryuin family, with daughter Satsuki at the head of the student council. Said family also has extensive access to Life Fibers, which they use to create [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. Satsuki herself has a sword that can defeat said uniforms by itself, and a special uniform, called a Kamui, which is far more powerful than the rest, matched only by the protagonist's own Kamui and a special sword of her own.

* Remember that bit about how ''vitally important'' school clubs are in Japan? The Student Council in the ''BinanKoukouChikyuuBoueibuLove'' manga shuts them down at seemingly random, and one of the plot threads deals with their ongoing efforts against the Earth Defense Club, which they loathe (the titular ''Bouei-bu''). Their StudentCouncilPresident, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Kinshirou Kusatsu]], tears into anyone he even ''suspects'' of breaking rules. They also get hefty privileges - [[CustomUniform Custom Uniforms]], a fancy office, even a fancy table of their own in the cafeteria. And did we mention they're also bent on WorldDomination, and are the main opponents of the [[MagicalGirl Magical Boys]] in the Defense Club?

* ''Revenge of the Nerds'' was filmed long after ''AnimalHouse'' had their Greek Council decide that Delta House should have its charter revoked.

* Subverted completely and severely lampshaded in ''[[Literature/IAmAGeniusOfUnspeakableEvilAndIWantToBeYourClassPresident I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President]]''.

* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' in its [[HighSchoolAU High School AU]] translation of ''[[Series/KamenRiderFaiz Faiz]]'', has the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Lucky Clover]] as this. The ''Absurdly Powerful'' part gets literal as the Lucky Clover are a group of powerful [[MonsterOfTheDay Orphenoch]].

* Subverted in ''{{Room 222}}'', where a student-council member was critiqued for simply ''recommdending'' the school student council having the power to have input on a school's textbooks, or on removing a bad teacher in extreme cases.

* Subverted in ''KatawaShoujo'', in which [[StudentCouncilPresident Shizune]] and Misha are two members of the Student Council. [[ClubStub The only members]], unless Hisao joins them. As an example of their lack of power, while much work is pushed on to them for the SchoolFestival, including management of budgets and the creation of most of the stalls, they lack the authoritative power to recruit help, or even make sure that everybody gets paperwork in. (Oh, and the president is deaf and mute. Makes it so easy talking with others.)

* ''WebComic/MagickChicks'' takes this to literal extremes with Artemis Academy's student council, which is comprised of [[BadassNormal badass normals]], {{ninja}}, and their leader, [[SmugSuper Faith]] [[AlphaBitch Abbot]], is [[SuperPowerLottery the most powerful esper]] [[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/eat_you_up in the school's history.]] This is the reason [[spoiler: Cerise]]'s first order of business in taking over the school [[spoiler: [[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/girls_who_resisted was to get rid of them.]]]]

* The trope is subverted in the obscure ''{{Peanuts}}'' television special, ''You're (Not) Elected, Charlie Brown'', when Linus runs for class president (he's assumed to be in 2nd grade or so). He makes all sorts of outrageous promises and manages to win, but then meets with the principal and discovers he has no actual power whatsoever.

* In many [[MilitaryAcademy Military Academies]], in order to prepare cadets for their future careers, the students are given ranks parallel to their equivalents within the real military. First year students will often be cadet privates and fourth year students will be cadet officers. The cadets will be organized into battalions and companies under the command of upper class cadet officers. Many times these corps of cadets will be led by a "cadet colonel" or general. Actual commissioned officers have seniority over a cadet of any rank. Cadets ''do'' however outrank the enlisted personnel of the military in question.

* Frosh Week at the University of Waterloo is run by the Education Committee, or EDCOM. They dress and act like [[DrillSergeantNasty military police]], but [[SubvertedTrope their authority only lasts for the duration of Frosh Week, and they are usually very friendly outside of uniform.]]

* In ''TheFairlyOddparents'', the StudentCouncilPresident can cut in line (with a springboard to any student that doesn't let them), has his own bathroom stall and office, his own security detail, and apparently has important duties. This might be where the popular kids' bodyguard comes from as well.
* ''{{Daria}}'' subverted this by rendering Lawndale's student council invisible save for its President, EnsembleDarkhorse Jodie Landon, who kept mentioning being in the student council whenever she appeared on screen.
* The class treasurer election in ''{{Doug}}'' was such SeriousBusiness that, for Doug, Skeeter donated old campaigning materials from his uncle Dan Freebird (his justification being having the same initials as "Doug Funnie"), and his opponent's father, the ''Mayor of Bluffington'', used his own campaign for re-election to parade his son around. Unfortunately, this distracted the Mayor from his own election, causing him to lose on a landslide. And [[spoiler:Dan Freebird]] was elected class treasurer.

* The [[http://www.valiantdefendersparty.com Valiant Defender's Party Student Leadership Society]] tries to pass itself off as this, their council being called the High Commaind. In one of their newsletters, "world domination" is implied to be their ultimate goal.

* In ''KidNation'', the entire city was run by children. Some of the children acted in accordance with this trope.
* Played with on ''YouCantDoThatOnTelevision''. In the outro to the "Opposite Skits" segment, Justin is running for StudentCouncilPresident and makes the most outrageous claims:

* US Patriot Act and American Eagle of ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' treated the class president election as SeriousBusiness, but once the election was over, it turned out that the faculty had no clue what the class president was supposed to do. So, despite the class president being the leader of a group of absurdly powerful students, the most significant thing said president has done in that role was preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new computer lab.

* US Patriot Act and American Eagle of ''{{PS238}}'' treated the class president election as SeriousBusiness, but once the election was over, it turned out that the faculty had no clue what the class president was supposed to do. So, despite the class president being the leader of a group of absurdly powerful students, the most significant thing said president has done in that role was preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new computer lab.

* Parodied in the hentai [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discipline:_Record_of_a_Crusade Discipline - The Hentai Academy]]. In which the student council has connections with very powerful people, and have their own private army which has access to tanks, helicopters, jets, and giant mechas.

* Played with on ''Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision''. In the outro to the "Opposite Skits" segment, Justin is running for StudentCouncilPresident and makes the most outrageous claims:
--> '''Justin:''' ...and, if you elect me Class President, I guarantee--repeat, ''GUARANTEE!''-- that Wind Surfing will become a credited course! (Cheering from the class) I promise free video games in the cafeteria! (Cheers) And most of all, I promise rock and roll piped into the hallways!

* Averted in ''REAlistair''. When you ask Derek if he enjoys being on the student council, he admits that the student council is mostly decorative and that the school board makes most of the decisions.

* The University of Bologna was originally ''run'' by the student council, who hired, fired, and set the wages of the professors. A student committee was also charged with keeping tabs on the professors for any misbehavior. The professors could be fined if they failed to finish classes on time or complete their course material by the end of the semester (the professors weren't powerless, though, forming into a College of Teachers to win the rights to set exam fees and degree requirements). Even so, a reverse from the usual relationship (unsurprisingly, as the university was founded by the students c. 1088, making it the oldest known in the world). Eventually it was ended by the city authorities, who turned it into a regular public university.

* X Middle School in ''{{Fillmore}}'' has its own student-run police force that enforces all of the school rules and runs like a real world police force. They take it upon themselves to make sure their fellow classmates play nice. Though it's made clear on multiple occasions that they answer to the teachers, or at least the principal.

** A lot of public universities have versions of this. A portion of student fees go the student government, and are under student control. Also typically the student center and school stores are owned by and managed by this(And anyone who has ever bought a text book can tell you this can be lucrative). Budgets in the 10s of million are quite common, as are trips to the state capitol and other places(and are the occasional reports of malfeasance) the amount the student body is aware and or cares of these activities- varies.

* The Public Safety Commission from ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' are the only ones allowed to use their monster powers on school grounds, which they abuse. They've even got their own dungeon for imprisoning the "unruly". They personally take it upon themselves to execute any human who discovers the school. They can also interrupt an instructor's class, round up and arrest students, tie their hands, and march them out, ''with the instructor powerless to stop them''. Of course, it's heavily implied that they only got so bad under the leadership of Kuyou, an [[ANaziByAnyOtherName anti-human]] [[FantasticRacism extremist]] who also happened to be [[spoiler: TheMole for [[FarEastAsianTerrorists Fairy Tale]]]] at the time, and that things improved after Tsukune and his UnwantedHarem defeat Kuyou.

* ''[[Literature/MyDarkAndFearsomeQueen]]'': The student council has its own security bureau which investigates teachers for misbehavior.

* Subverted completely and severely lampshaded in ''[[Main/IAmAGeniusOfUnspeakableEvilAndIWantToBeYourClassPresident I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President]]''.

* In ''SketDance'', the student council executives are made to be celebrities, and their respective quirks are often played for laughs. Although they have the obligatory power to manage and maintain the order among the different school clubs, they're just as prone to campus hijinks as the Sket Dan.

** Actually, the treasurer of the Council,[[DefrostingIceQueen Juri]], was briefly seen in one episode talking with a teacher about Student Council-y stuff. By the way, the teacher seemed ''terrified'' of her.

* ''ManabiStraight'' is a {{deconstruction}} of this, about a group of girls TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture who are newly forming a Student Council. A theme of the series seems to be that kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore and the notion of an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil takes itself far, far too seriously.
* Parodied in ''{{Karin}}'' with the three student council presidents of Ren's boarding school.
* The student councils in ''TenjouTenge'' and the very similar ''Dragon Destiny'' are at war with one another, and are so powerful they can even rape or kill students without repercussion (except revenge killings).

* Played with in ''YesPrettyCure5''. Karen, the StudentCouncilPresident for the school's realistically (i.e. not at all) powerful student council, spends a whole episode trying to meet the requests of the student body, who seem to ''think'' they have an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil that can acquire money and resources at will.
** ''HeartcatchPrettyCure'' also plays with this. In the episode that introduces Itsuki, Tsubomi and Erika attempt to get their Fashion Club list in, only to confront the Council (depicted in the shadows and wearing ScaryShinyGlasses) who ominously tell them they were too late as Itsuki, the StudentCouncilPresident, had left early. Erika doesn't give up so easily and she and Tsubomi confront Itsuki at her home... and find out Itsuki's a pretty nice guy... [[{{Bifauxnen}} er, girl.]]

* ''ShugoChara!'': The student council have their own private garden and tearoom which other students need an invitation to get into, and are apparently exempt from the dress code.

* In the manga ''HanaKimi'', the student heads of the three school dormitories have the combined power to veto a school authority's decision. They are also fully responsible for the conduct of their juniors and fellow classmates of the respective dormitories that they are in charge of.