History Main / AuthorityInNameOnly

* Most monarchies have been slowly transitioning towards this over the centuries, with most of the official duties of the crown being ceremonial, and the remainder being things they technically only do when the elected government asks them to do it. For example, the British Monarch is the only person with the authority to name a Prime Minister, and has the authority to name whoever he/she chooses, whenever he/she chooses, but in practice the Monarch always selects the leader of the party or coalition of parties that controls the House of Commons, and does so only when the party leadership or control of the House of Commons changes[[note]]In the event of the Government falling apart, the Monarch genuinely can name whoever he/she wants as a placeholder PM until the next election, but that doesn't happen often[[/note]].

** The Warden in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' starts out this way. Thanks to YouAreInCommandNow, they are technically the Warden-Commander of all of Ferelden... but there's only one other Grey Warden in Ferelden, and the Warden is only in charge because the other guy doesn't want the job. Even so, being a Grey Warden is normally enough by itself to grant a person a certain amount of clout and respect - but the problem is that in Ferelden, the king has been killed and the bad guy is spreading the word that the Wardens are the ones who did it. Over the course of the game, the Warden has to spread their influence sufficiently and gather allies in order to transition from this trope to AsskickingEqualsAuthority.

Contrast MayorOfAGhostTown, where the person ''is'' a recognized authority figure, it's just that there's no one left to rule over. Also contrast JustTheFirstCitizen, where the figure doesn't claim a grand title but holds the real power nevertheless -- the diametric inverse of this trope. For characters who actually do wield tyrannical control over some place, see IOwnThisTown. Can overlap with KickedUpstairs if the title is actually bestowed by someone else who ''does'' have real authority, often specifically to appease the victim or move them out of the way. For characters who genuinely do hold a seat of power but aren't actually the ones in charge, see PuppetKing. VicePresidentWho is another example. For someone who holds legitimate authority but can't or won't properly exercise it, see TheAllegedBoss.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''
** In the episode "Rightful Heir", Worf convinces Chancellor Gowron to give a clone of Kahless (the legendary founder of Klingon culture) the vacant position of Emperor, just as a symbolic function for the empire to rally around.
** Lwaxana Troi liked to introduce herself with a handful of titles, most notably Guardian of the Sacred Chalice of Riix and Keeper of the Holy Rings of Betazed; it was never explained what any of these titles ''meant'' in terms of importance. It can be assumed that they were legitimate titles but that they held only ritual significance. Deanna once said that the Sacred Chalice of Riix was a moldy clay pot stored in her mother's closet. The ExpandedUniverse novels stated that the primary duty of being Keeper of the Holy Rings of Betazed (implied to be a set of bracelets that used to be ceremonially important for some reason) is to take them out of a shoebox (stored on a shelf in the closet next to the Sacred Chalice of Riix) and polish them every now and then.

* Captain Christopher Pike becomes this in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' after the accident on a J-class ship renders him mute and confined to a wheel chair. In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI The Menagerie]]" Pike is still on the active duty list because none of his fellow officers had the heart to remove him from the active duty list.

* In theory Canada has the British Queen/King as head of State, and he/she is represented by a Governor General who is allowed to exercise most of the monarch's power on their behalf, including the power to appoint anyone to be the Prime Minister. Of course in practice, the Governor General simply appoints the leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament and the Governor General is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister (read: he tells her who to pick), which means the powers of both positions are mostly symbolic.

** The church requires that certain positions in the Vatican administration be held by bishops. But a bishop is supposed to be the head of a diocese, and a bishopric in a real diocese is a full-time job. The church instead assigns bishops intended to work in the Vatican to a "titular see", which is a diocese that's no longer extant. (Most are located in the Middle East or North Africa, areas that were wholly Christian before the advent of Islam.) The best-known titular bishop might be Nicolaus Steno (aka Neils Stensen), the Titular Bishop of Titiopolis, a geologist and the subject of an essay by Stephen Jay Gould.

* ''Fanfic/WhatItTakes'': [[spoiler:After Malcolm is killed during the nuclear attack on Nanda Parbat, Thea is by default next-in-line to succeed him as Ra's al Ghul. Since the attack killed everyone in the League not lucky enough to be somewhere else at the time, the title is effectively meaningless because there's barely any members left. People find it ridiculous that Athena and her followers are trying to kill Thea for an empty title, and eventually decide to tell Talia about them so she can either absorb the group or crush them if they refuse to heel]].

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Gob is installed as nominal president of the Bluth Company as Michael is suspected of being an accomplice to George Sr.'s "mild treason". He actually does have some power early on as he manages to charm the board of directors. However, his manifest incompetence and unwillingness to do any work, not to mention his extremely rude and abusive behaviour towards employees, means he quickly loses everyone's respect and becomes a meaningless figurehead. When he tries to fire Michael, security removes ''him'' instead as it's clear to everyone whose actually in charge.

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Gob is installed as nominal president of the Bluth Company as Michael is suspected of being an accomplice to George Sr.'s "mild treason". He actually does have some power early on as he manages to charm the board of directors, but his manifest incompetence and unwillingness to do any work, not to mention his extremely rude and abusive behavior towards employees, means he quickly loses everyone's respect and becomes a meaningless figurehead, to the point that when he tries to fire Michael security removes ''him'' instead.

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Gob is installed as titular president of the Bluth Company as Michael is suspected of being an accomplice to George Sr.'s "mild treason". He actually does have some power early on as he manages to charm the board of directors, but his manifest incompetence and unwillingness to do any work, not to mention his extremely rude and abusive behavior towards employees, means he quickly loses everyone's respect and becomes a meaningless figurehead, to the point that when he tries to fire Michael security removes ''him'' instead.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Oliver Munsee, Vice Principal of Mrs. Nestor's Private Elementary School. He's the brother of Winona Nestor and (later) [[SuspiciouslySimiliarSubstitute of Ruth Nestor]]. He has no authority, and, by his own admission, is the "most useless vice principal in the country".

* The ''Series/Lucifer2016'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13919242/1/Gift-to-the-Devil Gift to the Devil]]" sees God send Chloe and Trixie to Hell so that Chloe can be with Lucifer when he didn't return to Earth as God had predicted, God simultaneously [[ClaimedByTheSupernatural "marking" Chloe and Trixie as Lucifer's bride and heir]] respectively. While demons treat Chloe and Trixie as the Queen and Princess of Hell respectively, Lucifer notes that demons would still defer to him over Chloe even if they would obey her orders, and he doubts she would be able to take charge if something happened to Lucifer as only a celestial can truly rule Hell.

** The Emperor of Japan is weird as it was a figurehead monarchy all the way back in 1192 CE. real central political power from 1192 through 1868, much of the real imperial power rested with the Shogun, who was dejur the Emperor's general, but defacto rulers (as they controlled the largest armies). The Shogun's power itself waxed and waned, going from having complete dictatorial power to barely being acknowledged by the various clans of the islands. The Emperor's power was briefly restored under the Meiji restoration, although gave up much of his formal power under the Meiji constition, and all power (both real and even theoretical power of other monarchs) was removed after World War 2.

* In theory Canada has the British Queen/King as head of State, and he/she is represented by a Governor General who is allowed to exercise most of the monarch's power on their behalf, including the power to appoint anyone to be the Prime Minister. Of course in practice the Governor General simply appoints the leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament and the Governor General is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister (read: he tells her who to pick), which means the powers of both positions are mostly symbolic.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** King Joffrey may have his arse plonked firmly on the Iron Throne, but [[DragonInChief Tywin Lannister]] royally ''emasculates'' him and has no problem implying to His Grace that he is the sole reason that Joffrey continues to keep the throne, something which is obvious to everyone.
--->'''Tywin:''' Any man who must say "I am the king" is no true king.\\

** Littlefinger, Lord of Harrenhal, is mocked because his title amounts to nothing while the Northern army occupies the Riverlands. Subverted since the title itself is all he needs for his current plans.
** When Tommen takes over as King after Joffrey's death, he quickly learns that he has no real authority when he tries to give orders to rescue his wife Margaery after she was imprisoned by the Faith Militant, but no one obeys.
** Cersei's title as Queen Mother only holds weight before Joffrey, and later Tommen, were officially wed. Despite sitting in on Small Council Meetings, Cersei technically has no real authority. Her title as Queen Cersei, first of her name, also counts as this since she only gained this position after killing most of her political enemies and usurping the position for herself and she has no allies to speak of apart from Jaime and those at King's Landing. And even those are under extreme question at this point. In the Season 7 premiere, Jaime even brings this up.
--->'''Cersei:''' I'm the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.\\

Contrast MayorOfAGhostTown, where the person ''is'' a recognized authority figure, it's just that there's no one left to rule over. Also contrast JustTheFirstCitizen, where the figure doesn't claim a grand title but holds the real power nevertheless -- the diametric inverse of this trope. For characters who actually do wield tyrannical control over some place, see IOwnThisTown. Can overlap with KickedUpstairs if the title is actually bestowed by someone else who ''does'' have real authority, often specifically to appease the victim or move them out of the way. For characters who genuinely do hold a seat of power but aren't actually the ones in charge, see PuppetKing. VicePresidentWho is another example. For someone who holds legitimate authority but doesn't ever seem to bother to exercise it, see TheAllegedBoss.

->''"Now, despite rumors to the contrary, I did not just buy a crown at the costume palace and ask people to start calling me the King of Town. I earned my title the same way I earned a free combo meal; by purchasing one of equal or lesser value."''
-->-- '''The King Of Town''', ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''

Contrast MayorOfAGhostTown, where the person ''is'' a recognized authority figure, it's just that there's no one left to rule over. Also contrast JustTheFirstCitizen, where the figure doesn't claim a grand title but holds the real power nevertheless -- the diametric inverse of this trope. For characters who actually do wield tyrannical control over some place, see IOwnThisTown. Can overlap with KickedUpstairs if the title is actually bestowed by someone else who ''does'' have real authority, often specifically to appease the victim or move them out of the way. For characters who genuinely do hold a seat of power but aren't actually the ones in charge, see PuppetKing. VicePresidentWho is another example.

** King Dedede claims to be the ruler of Dream Land, but the most it gets him is a castle for our pink protagonist to [[StormingTheCastle storm through]] once per game. He seems to have vast independent wealth, but that's about it.

* Jables and Kage of Music/TenaciousD become these [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified after overthrowing]] the [[FelonyMisdemeanor horribly oppressive City Hall]] in the aptly-named song "City Hall". [[MarySuetopia They]] [[DrunkWithPower fail]] [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident spectacularly.]]