In most anime that have anything to do with school life on some level a student body government is seen at some point. The student government almost always seems to be absurdly powerful. In some anime, I've seen the student presidents punish other students for being late to class to running armies.
Which left me with the question, how much power do actually kids have that are in student government?
I know that here and a lot of non-Asian countries student governments (if they have one) have no power what so ever. The people elected are just figure-heads and the elections are really just popularity contest. Power in United States schools is in the hands of the principal and faculty and the board of education; and of course, these are subordinate to the power of state and federal courts. In 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 "extra curricular activities" and an extra picture in the yearbook.
Today, students in Japan must go to school until they complete grade 9, but most go on to some kind of senior high school. Students elect a number of different representatives, from student president, vice-president and even class representatives to serve on their school’s student council. In many schools, these elections look very similar to other elections in Japan, with student-candidates greeting other students at the school entrance, holding signs, and having supporters cheer them on. Student-candidates give speeches to the student body, asking their schoolmates to vote for them in the upcoming election.
In fiction, student council is Serious Business, with power worthy of corruption and abuse in the hands of those with evil in their hearts. Students have unparalleled freedom — they do as they please on campus, invent arbitrary rules that punish the masses and give themselves and their allies special privileges. No member of the staff dare rebuke them. In fact, the staff may rarely appear at all (see Two-Teacher School). Occasionally, their power will be checked by others, such as the School Newspaper Newshound. In the event that the student council is not corrupt and seeks to use their powers for good rather than evil, their rival will be the actual school administration, who will often butt heads with the council over the administration's own corruption/tyranny. One thing that may or may not overlap with this trope is how the Yearbook Committee seems to have supreme power over the yearbook, despite the fact that in Real Life schools, administration would step in so that the student(s) that is in danger of being hurt by the pictures would be out of harm's way. Naturally, led by the Student Council President. If the student council is not only powerful, but more powerful than the adults, then they have a Teenage Wasteland.
This is an exaggeration of Truth in Television, as the Student Councils actually do have power over the approval and funding of student clubs. 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, 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 fulfils at a university, and a class's prefects are assigned to keep order in the teacher's absence.
President- The President's role is the head of the student council. The President has the final say in deadlock discussions and gets the privilege of picking the rest of the students on the President's Board. The President is in charge of making sure all responsibilities of the students of the school are taking care, such as clubs following regulations and students participating in after school clean-up duties. The President also has the power to hand out punishments to delinquent students. The President is required to be a third year student. The President chooses a second year in Student Council to be President for the following year and whoever is picked becomes Vice President.
Vice President- The Vice President acts as the President's right-hand man. The Vice President should take their role very highly and are expected to use this year to prepare for next year, when they take on the role as President. The Vice President is always a second year and is hand picked by the President.
Treasurer- The Treasurer's role is to keep track of the spending done by the Student Council. They make the budgets and keep the council from overspending. The Treasurer is also responsible for pulling together supplies and for helping the council save as much as they can.
Secretary 1- The First Secretary's role is to assist the President and the Vice President in anyway possible. The First Secretary is in charge of both the President's and the Vice President's paperwork. From writing down ideas in a planner to handing out detentions that the President assigns, a personal assistant's job is not an easy task.
Secretary 2- The Second Secretary's job is to assist the Treasurer. They are giving the job of checking over math and balances. They are also in charge of making sure the spendings are going as planned. The Treasurer may also send them out to pick up fast supplies if they are too busy to do so themselves.
Historian- The Historian is in charge of keeping track of the many duties performed by the Student Council. At the end of the year, they make a scrap book made of the pictures they have taken throughout the year of the Student Council at work. Each book is considered to be very important to the Student Council's, and it is filed along the other books from the many years before
Student Officers
Every year, two students, a male and a female, from each grade level are picked by the President to be a student officer (picked by mod as a special privilege). To be a student officer, membership of the student council is not necessary.
Student Officers have the role of enforcing rules. They are to make sure nobody runs out on clean-up duty early. They are also to look for students misbehaving in which they are to give them a detention. Detentions are then reported to the President who will then decide if it is legit and decide when it will be held.
Student Officers are given badges to wear on their uniform to signify their superiority.
Class Representatives
Every Homeroom gets a Class Representative that is picked by the student's in that homeroom. Class Representatives are in charge of taking attendance and reading announcements (when the Headmaster doesn't cover it himself). On field trips, they are made the leader of their homeroom group and are responsible to uphold the rules set for those trips. They give out the cleaning duties to their homeroom class. While it is not necessary that the class representative is part of the Student Council, they are given the tasks of bringing suggestions to the Council made by the homeroom class.
Because I couldn't find the video I was looking for, you get a random video of Greg Ayres (one of my favorite English VAs. Some might know him as Kaoru Hitachiin from OHSHC.) telling a story about when he had to explain to someone's parent what Yaoi (boy's love) has to do with homosexuality.
