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I have learned from this video that Switzerland does not have a single head-of-state - it is managed cooperatively by seven ministers with equal powers (the "president" serves only representational and ceremonial roles). Are there other countries that are managed cooperatively by several "heads" with equal power?

Rick Smith
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Erel Segal-Halevi
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    Are you asking about heads of state, or heads of government? Literally, the co-Princes of Andorra would count for the first (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-Princes_of_Andorra 2 heads of state with mostly symbolic power) but not the second. – origimbo Jan 07 '22 at 10:36
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    In Switzerland the members of the federal council are joint heads of state as well as leading the executive (the president is not head of state), but it's common to have separate heads of state and government, so this needs clarification. – Stuart F Jan 07 '22 at 11:45
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    Strictly speaking off topic, but worth noting in passing: some heads of state have no real power at all, e.g. Queen Elizabeth in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. – PatrickT Jan 07 '22 at 22:16
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    And then of course there is Pheasant island... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant_Island – PatrickT Jan 07 '22 at 22:16
  • @origimbo I meant to ask about leaders with actual executive power (not only symbolic). Is "head of government" the right term for this? – Erel Segal-Halevi Jan 08 '22 at 18:17
  • Does Ancient Sparta count? – Joshua Jan 08 '22 at 19:50
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    Not sure whether it counts, but in Israel we frequently have rotation, where a 4-year government would switch prime minister after 2 years, so these 2 PMs can be considered equal. This opens up the door to the first PM toppling the government before rotation time and screwing over the second PM, as has happened recently to Benni Gantz. – Jonathan Jan 09 '22 at 14:14
  • Not an answer as I don't have a lot of details, but Rojava in Kurdistan requires some top positions to be held by a man and a woman in tandem. – Simon Richter Jan 10 '22 at 02:26
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    @ErelSegal-Halevi Given the variety of constitutional and basic law in the world, no term is universal, but "head of government" is fairly well respected as an english language version (see eg https://thecommonwealth.org/chogm) and slightly less ambiguous than "leader", which is indeed the other common alternative for the role. – origimbo Jan 10 '22 at 06:13
  • @ErelSegal-Halevi Yes, “head of government” is the correct term for the most senior position with executive power. If that’s what you meant, you’d better ask a new question — this one now has several answers to the question you actually asked. – Mike Scott Jan 10 '22 at 15:52
  • Not sure if the College of Cardinals between Popes counts for Vatican City. – ohwilleke Jan 10 '22 at 22:16

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San Marino has two heads of state - Captains Regent - which are elected every six months by the parliament, the Grand and General Council. The positions are mainly symbolic, but include powers such as enacting emergency decrees in consultation with the Congress of State, as well as guaranteeing the Constitution & dissolving Parliament. Both Captains Regent have a reciprocal veto, so any decision must be unanimous.

Bosnia & Herzegovina has a three-member presidency which must constitutionally consist of one Bosniac & one Croat, elected from the territory of the federation, and one Serb elected from the Republika Srpska. The presidency must attempt to make decisions by unanimous consent, but may make decisions based on the consent of two members "when all efforts to reach consensus have failed". The powers of the presidency are defined in Article V, section 3 of the constitution, and include conducting the foreign policy of the country, negotiating treaties, proposing annual budgets, and appointing ambassadors.

CDJB
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Andorra’s heads of state are two co-princes, who are the Bishop of Urgell (in Spain) and the President of France. They have (in Andorra) equal powers, but since Andorra is a democratic constitutional monarchy those powers are quite limited and do not include executive or legislative powers.

Mike Scott
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It is my understanding, that in all/most countries where the president isn't chosen directly and the government is formed by a coalition of parties, that the president/prime minister is not inherently more powerful than the other ministers.

He/she is a so-called primus inter pares, someone who might serve as the face of the government/has some extra administrative powers/has some extra ceremonial duties, but is not the "boss" of the other ministers.

thieupepijn
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    A Prime Minister is primus inter pares, but is a head of government rather than a head of state, and so is out of scope for this question. A President, by virtue of being head of state, is not generally considered to be primus inter pares. Their powers may be quite limited, but there won’t (except for the exceptions noted in other answers) be another head of state with equal powers. – Mike Scott Jan 09 '22 at 18:35
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Malaysia has a group of kings who rotate holding office in this constitutional monarchy.

ohwilleke
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  • The Presidency of the Council of the European Union has a similar arrangement, but not hereditary, of course, and not strictly speaking the "President of the European Union" in a head of state sense, although arguably as close as the E.U. gets to such a post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_the_Council_of_the_European_Union – ohwilleke Jan 10 '22 at 22:17
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Italy is managed that way, at least formally, but the actual situation is much more complex. A bit of background:

Italy is a democratic parliamentary republic. We have an head of state, the President of the Republic, who has very few powers, none of which are executive. The President is elected by the parliament after his/her 7 years terms is over.

After a parliamentary election, after the new members of both chambers get in charge, the President of the Republic nominates the Prime Minister, whose formal title is President of the Ministers Council (approximately translated from Italian).

The Prime Minister chooses his cabinet of ministers who then are confirmed by the President of the Republic.

When the new cabinet has sworn, the Prime Minister must receive a confidence vote from both branches of the parliament. Only then the cabinet acquires full executive powers.

Now to your question: although the Prime Minister chooses his ministers, our constitution doesn't make him the "chief" of them. The Italian Constitution assigns a coordination role to the Prime Minister and each minister has full responsibility and power on the respective ministry.

So our Prime Minister is a peer among the other ministers, as long as formal powers goes (still he has some prerogatives, especially in case of emergency, like the current pandemic). Actually, though, the things are quite different, since the Prime Minister is usually the head of some party and this largely influences the other ministers, even from other parties (in the usual case of a coalition government) thanks to power plays and political maneuvers.

Should a conflict of attribution between the Prime Minister and one of his ministers arise, if that cannot be solved by politics, then the Prime Minister has no special "overriding" power. The conflict must be brought before the Constitutional Court (our "supreme court" for constitutional affairs) who is the only institution that can deliberate on conflicts between different "powers" of the state.

EDIT

To clarify the relevance of this answer in light of a comment and potential downvoters.

In a comment to the question the OP wrote:

"I meant to ask about leaders with actual executive power (not only symbolic). Is "head of government" the right term for this?"

So it is evident the OP didn't actually know the difference between Head of State and Premier/Prime Minister/Head of Government, but it is clear he wanted to know about executive power management.

Therefore my answer is on-topic and relevant.

LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike
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    I think this doesn't really provide an example, as those are not "heads of state", just heads of parts of the government. (The head of state is still the president.) – Paŭlo Ebermann Jan 10 '22 at 00:28
  • Interesting. So the prime minister can appoint ministers, but cannot replace (or "fire") them? – Erel Segal-Halevi Jan 10 '22 at 12:48
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    @ErelSegal-Halevi It's not so simple. He cannot appoint ministers. He can propose a list to the President of the Republic (PotR). Formally it's this latter that appoints them. In fact the PotR can also refuse to appoint one of the proposed ministers. It's a rather rare occurrence, but it happens for various reasons from time to time, all related to the role of "Guardian of the Consitution" that the Consitution assigns to the PotR. It happened a couple of years ago (1st Conte administration): he refused to appoint a minister who had a past of strong antieuropean positions. – LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike Jan 11 '22 at 06:24
  • @PaŭloEbermann OP: Are there other countries that are managed* cooperatively by several "heads" with equal power?*. A head of state doesn't manage a country, even in the OP example (since they have representative role). So the OP was somewhat ambiguous, opening the door to other answers. Head of State have management roles only in countries that have "presidentialism", but that wasn't implied in OP. I was trying to answer the "perceived intent" of the question instead of the "question exactly as written", who wasn't precise enough anyway. – LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike Jan 11 '22 at 06:58