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{{trope}}
[[File:testag_8632testag 8632.jpg|link=Fudotei Student Academy|frame|[[A Nazi by Any Other Name|If the salute fits...]]]]
 
{{quote|"Each student government possesses decision-making powers that outrank those of the board of directors, the PTA, and the faculty."|''[[CLAMP School Detectives]]''}}
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In real life, 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.
 
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 -- theyfreedom—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, [[Executive Meddling|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.
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* The Grace organization in ''[[Red Garden]]''.
* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]: Fumoffu''
** [[Hand Wave|Handwaved]] when a teacher goes to the principal because he thinks the student council is getting too much authority, and she decides not to interfere--notinterfere—not because she's afraid of them (as would be typical of this trope) but simply because she doesn't want the students to feel inadequate and, well, like a ''real'' student council.
* This seems to be common in [[Yuri]].
** '[[Mariasama ga Miteru]]'' revolves around one.
** ''[[Strawberry Panic!|Strawberry Panic]]'' 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|Student Council Presidents]]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.
* ''[[Manabi Straight!]]'' is a [[Deconstruction]] of this, about a group of girls [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] 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 [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]] takes itself far, far too seriously.
* Parodied in ''[[Karin]]'' with the three student council presidents of Ren's boarding school.
* The student councils in ''[[Tenjou Tenge]]'' and the very similar ''Dragon Destiny'' are literally at war with one another, and are so powerful they can even rape or kill students without repercussion (except revenge killings).
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** One can assume that the student council's power diminished considerably after Milly graduated, since her power came not so much from her position as from the fact that her family owns the place.
*** Depends on one's point of view. Once Milly graduated, Lelouch became president. It is never confirmed that Lelouch officially stoped being the student council president when he {{spoiler|became emperor}}. Which other student council can use {{spoiler|all of the world's}} armed forces and geass to enforce its policies?
* Subverted in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]] [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Gluhen]]'': Koua Academy seems to have an [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]] in the form of "S Class," an elite group of students who, led by [[Enfant Terrible]] Toudou, literally get away with murder and at one point openly declare their control over the school. They get a rude awakening six or seven episodes in when {{spoiler|Toudou discovers he is the [[Tomato in the Mirror]], has a [[Freak-Out]], and is murdered by his creator}}, after which the protagonists get down to the business of ferreting out [[The Man Behind the Man]] and The Man ''Behind'' [[The Man Behind the Man]] from among the faculty and founders of the academy.
* Played with in ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5]]''. Karen, the [[Student Council President]] 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 [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]] that can acquire money and resources at will.
* ''[[Shugo Chara]]!'': 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 ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', Itsuki's organization [[Invoked Trope|creates]] one to fit this trope. The [[Student Council President]] actually laughs about how ridiculous the premise is... [[Becoming the Mask|while slowly getting sucked into acting this way for real]] (This sort of thing happens a lot, due to [[Reality Warper|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.
* ''[[Gakuen Heaven]]''
* Inverted in ''[[Medabots]]'' -- the—the show's Student Council are stereotypical nerds who are hopeless at Medabot battling and lose their meeting room to the school bullies in the first episode.
* Justified in ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'': all of the adults die early on, so the Zwei elite class decides to take on the leadership role.
* In ''[[Chrome Shelled Regios]]'' the [[Student Council President]] is literally and explicitly in charge of the entire city. Considering that includes its military for fighting giant monsters as well as other cities, that's a pretty big responsibility.
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* In the anime ''[[Happy Seven]]'', the student council president happens to be the [[Big Bad]]'s henchman.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', the student council president Hibari Kyoya has pretty much everyone in the school afraid of him; no one does anything even when he harms the other students. He has the director of the local hospital under his fingers and is the most feared deliquent group in their town AND can get rid of dead bodies, no questions asked.
** The reason for Hibari's considerable influence becomes clear by the Varia Arc -- heArc—he is quite simply one of the deadliest people on the planet and resisting his will immediately puts one in severe physical danger.
* The student council in ''[[Midori Days]]'' spends several chapters hiring the most elite fighters of Japan in order to make the protagonist a fearless fighter again... so that he would become the class president the next year. Not only do the fights not work, but Seiji plain out doesn't care.
** More a case of the president being rich, obsessed, and able to drag the rest along.
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* The Swedish movie [[Evil]] ''(Ondskan)'' combines this with [[Boarding School of Horrors]]. And the scariest part is, it's based on real life.
* The teachers in the 1992 [[Boarding School]] movie ''[[School Ties]],'' a crib sheet is found on the floor during an exam and the teachers ''tell the students'' to form their own [[Kangaroo Court|impromptu hearing]] to decide which one of them was cheating. The [[Informed Judaism|token Jewish]] protagonist [[The Scapegoat|is seized]] upon by a [[Joker Jury]] of [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|Anti-Semitic]] schoolboys. The [[Anvilicious]] tone of the scene is [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] once you consider [[Dick Wolf|who wrote the movie.]]
* In the feature film ''[[Pinch Runner]]'' (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 -- notuniforms—not to mention the fact that all seven students apparently skip class for the rest of the school day -- thereday—there is no indication that the adults at the [[Two-Teacher School]] (or the girls' parents, for that matter) ever learn of the affair.
* ''[[The Hairy Bird]]'':
{{quote|Abby: Odette Sinclair, the Committee has decided not to recommend expulsion and to give you another chance. However, you are grounded for the remainder of the school year.
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* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' did an entire episode around the corrupt antics of Neptune High's student council. The council, run by the school's wealthiest students, conceived a policy called "Pirate Points" to allow the councilmen and their cronies on the various sports and cheer teams to have take-out food delivered to the school for them to eat, while forcing the rest of the students, and those in clubs that were not liked by the jocks and student council, to eat the crappy cafeteria food. To keep a rabble-rousing ex-cheerleader from getting elected student council president on a platform of her abolishing the Pirate Point program, [[Alpha Bitch]] Madison Sinclair schemed to get popular student Duncan Kane elected president, under the logic that Duncan would keep the Pirate Point program going since he was too spaced out to care either way about how controversial the program was. In the end, after realizing the reform candidate was a narc for the local police and probably wouldn't carry out her vow to abolish the program, Veronica was forced to switch candidates and basically shamed Duncan (via pointing out how much of a hand-puppet he had become for Madison) into adopting his rival's platform to reform the system, via expanding the program to include all clubs and teams at school as well as all students on the honor roll.
* In ''[[Degrassi]]'', during the shooting episode, Jay says "When your girlfriend's student council vice president, nobody asks questions." Otherwise they limit the student council to what a student council would be involved in, raffle tickets and dances.
* The [[Truth in Television]] version of this -- thethis—the [[Boarding School of Horrors|British-public-school]] student hierarchy -- ishierarchy—is parodied in the ''[[Ripping Yarns]]'' episode "Tomkinson's Schooldays" with the school bully, Grayson. "School Bully" is his official title; he's won a Bullying Cup and a "kick-in of fags," and parents send their sons to the school partly to be bullied by him. "Absurdly powerful" could not be a more apt description.
{{quote|"In return for not hitting any of the masters, the Head had allowed Grayson certain privileges, such as having unmarried Filipino women in his room, smoking opium, and having a sauna instead of prayers."}}
* ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' in its [[High School AU]] translation of ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz|Faiz]]'', has the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Lucky Clover]] as this. The ''Absurdly Powerful'' part gets literal as the Lucky Clover are a group of powerful [[Monster of the Day|Orphenoch]].
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* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', the dean of the Maritsu Evil Academy is also the overlord, meaning they rule the world.
* Averted in ''[[RE: Alistair]]''. 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.
* ''[[Rival Schools]]'' and ''[[Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer]]'' are [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]s that both revolve around student councils that want to take over not just their school, but all of Japan. In the case of ''Rival Schools'', this was a failed attempt at a [[Batman Gambit]] of one of the school's principals in order to create a new generation of politicians and civil workers to make a better future for Japan.
* Not stated outright in ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'', but, considering the elaborate class presidential elections, and the extreme levels of power the Head Boy is implied to have, one has to wonder...
 
 
== [[Visual Novel|Visual Novels]]s ==
* In ''[[Clannad]]'', the [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]] drive the plot for Nagisa to restore the Drama Club.
** Overturned with Tomoyo's election as [[Student Council President]].
** The student council in Clannad is powerful not because it has some control over club activities, but rather because it can influence GOVERNMENTAL DECISIONS (Tomoyo managed to prevent the Sakura trees near the school from being cut down even though they are not school property!)
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* The [[Boarding School of Horrors|Solbacka school in Sweden]], which inspired Jan Guillou to write his novel ''Ondskan'' ("The Evil").
* There's also the [[wikipedia:Hb woodlawn|H.B. Woodlawn Secondary Program]], where the student body can participate in 'town meetings', which have power over almost every aspect of the school (the Principal, can, if necessary, override the TM) up to and including funding allocation for teachers, as well as clubs.
* In the [[Yanks With Tanks|US Air Force]], all airmen who graduate Basic Training have to go through Tech School, basically vocational training to learn the jobs they will be performing in the Air Force. Airmen in training and living in the dorms can volunteer (or be "volun-told") to become a "Rope" ,<ref>So called because of the color-coded aiguilettes they wear on their uniforms - [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|Green, Yellow, and Red, in order of seniority. They all answer to the sergeants who are responsible for maintaining discipline in the squadron, who wear Blue ropes.]]</ref>, basically airmen who have been trained and given the power to enforce the rules over the other airmen. These guys of course are emulating the authority hierarchy that exists in the real military, and helping the sergeants manage the somtimes upwards of ''thousands'' of airmen in any given training squadron. They are able to report airmen to the sergeants for violating rules, and are often expected to take attendance and make sure everybody gets to where they are supposed to be. Some Ropes are apathetic as long as the airmen under them don't actively get them in trouble, others are regular [[The Neidermeyer|Neidermeyers]], quite a few actually are competent leaders if given a chance.
** Of course, even this is a subversion. What the squadron leadership says is what goes. A Rope who tries to maintain otherwise does so at his or her own peril.
* In many [[Military Academy|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.
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