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From my outside position I believed that only the federal goverment had a secretary of state with duties arround the foreign policy plus some emergency back-up for the president (last discussed around the attentate on president Reagan IIRC).

However recent new reveal that at least one state also has a secretary of state. Do all 50 states have such secretary? With which functions?

Technically my country is also a union (Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroes), only looser in trade matters than the US, but we only have one secretary of state.

Klaus

Klaus,

I don't know about all 50 states, but North Carolina does have a Secretary of State. This link, http://www.sosnc.com/ shows what the job entails. In short,

MISSION STATEMENT: To serve and protect citizens, the business community and governmental agencies by facilitating business activities, by providing accurate and timely information and by preserving documents and records.

The job really has nothing to do with foreign policy like the US Secretary of State does.

Hope this helps.

imperialbari wrote:From my outside position I believed that only the federal goverment had a secretary of state with duties arround the foreign policy plus some emergency back-up for the president (last discussed around the attentate on president Reagan IIRC).

However recent new reveal that at least one state also has a secretary of state. Do all 50 states have such secretary? With which functions?

Technically my country is also a union (Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroes), only looser in trade matters than the US, but we only have one secretary of state.

Klaus

Klaus- this is the web site for the Secretary of State of Massachusetts (where I live), and it seem to be fairly typical of most states.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/" target="_blank" target="_blank

If you want further information, this is a link to the web sites of all 50 states which would have the information about each state's Secretary of State.
http://www.globalcomputing.com/states.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

About 10-20 years ago, Utah passed a constitutional change eliminating the Secretary of State position, and moving most of the functions that had previously existed there (primarily business formation and UCC filings) into the state's Division of Corporations and Commercial Code. Functions that didn't go there (notary registration, elections office) went to the Lt. Governor's Office.

Some other states have also made that change, but I don't have the number handy.

I was going to give a lengthy description of the duties of that position at the state level as opposed to federal, but Wade accomplished everything I could have with the simple addition of the word "the" to the title.

But how many states are not states, but commonwealths?

windshieldbug wrote:But how many states are not states, but commonwealths?

None. The four states that call themselves commonwealths (Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts) are still states, even when we wish they weren't.

Rick "the answer man" Denney

Generally also the Sec of State is responsible for managing elections and results (though that is not universal either).

In the US Federal constitution, there is not a defined Sec of State position. The executive branch direction is pretty vague. The way it is now has been through growth of the country and the positions importance.

Indeed. All of the above are correct.

Part of the reason for the USA federal government executive branch office of Secretary of State is that, say, unlike the UK for example, we don't have a separation of the executive functions of ceremonial head of state (international relations with other countries) and executive head of government (relations with the other domestic departments of government). What the USA federal system does have is separation of the three basic functions of domestic government, executive, legislative and judicial, which is unlike some European governments, again including the UK, where all functions of government can derive from one body, usually in legislative or parliamentarian form. So the USA federal Secretary of State role developed in the role of assisting the President in the role of ceremonial head of state and of international relations functions, especially since the President has a "cabinet," the appointed heads of other executive agencies which execute and administer other functions of domestic government.

The office of the Secretary of State of each of the individual states, on the other hand, usually not having any international duties, (border states excepted) usually developed as administrators of the internal affairs of that particular state. For example, in Missouri, where I live and am most familiar, among the other responsibilites of the office, the Missouri Secretary of State takes care of business registrations, election oversight, custodian of the regulations promulgated by the other state executive agencies, state securities regulation, general responsibility for the state's records and archives, the biennial state manual, and some other functions, much like, on a larger scale, what the responsibilies would be of the general or corporate office of secretary of a corporation or business.

The confusion arises as the word "secretary" has in modern english several definitional uses: 1) a minister of government, 2) assistant to an executive or professional in business handling correspondence or other clerical work, 3) officer of a corporation or other business entity exercising administrative functions, or even 4) the name for the type of desk or furniture that a person sits at to perform any of these types of work, usually including a small ledge, bookshelf, or hutch attached on top.

There is further confusion as the USA system of government is a true federal system of government, with each entity and subdivision, national, state, and local government each having defined and sometimes overlapping authorities and responsibilites.

Sorry for the long civics lesson. There just isn't a quick and easy way to say it.

windshieldbug wrote:But how many states are not states, but commonwealths?

Also, remember the United States (not "American") territories, commonwealths, and, of course, the District of Columbia:

1. American Samoa, an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States
2. Territory of Guam
3. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
4. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
5. Territory of United States Virgin Islands
6. District of Columbia

windshieldbug wrote:But how many states are not states, but commonwealths?

If a state isn't a state ... well, then it isn't a state, right? It might be an "apostate", though ...