Absurdly Powerful Student Council - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Student Council

In real life, power at schools is held in the hands of the principal and faculty, and the highers up within the board of education. But to create the illusion of students having power over their lives at school, student councils are forged to allow for the appearance of power. In truth, these groups are largely figurehead posts for glorified popularity contests amongst the rank and file students, with the only benefit being that you can put holding a student council slot on your college application under "extra curricular activities" and an extra picture in your yearbook.

In the world of fiction, however, this is not so. In TV, comics, movies, books, student council is Serious Business, with power worthy of corruption and abuse in the hands of those with evil in their hearts. This power gives students unparalleled freedom — they do as they please on the campus, make up arbitrary rules to punish the masses while giving themselves and their allies special privileges, and no member of staff dares rebuke them. In fact, the staff may rarely appear at all. (See Two Teacher School.) Only occasionally will their power 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.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Taken to its logical extreme in Shattered Angels where the post apocalyptic scholastic city of Academia is ruled by an iron fisted student council. Along with the power to imprison and even use capital punishment, they have an inquisition like force (which consists largely of exported characters) of secret police.
In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the members of the Student Council have a private lift to their secret garden terrace where they debate the form the apocalypse will take based on the letters they all receive from The End Of The World. They are never seen to discuss uniforms or hall passes.
The student council in Mai-HiME essentially polices itself, with its actual headmaster being little more than a figurehead. There's also a bit of a subversion here: the vice-president is the host body of the Big Bad and the president is one of the super-powered HiME, and most of their on-screen council duties are limited to organizing school festivals (wherein plot-related stuff happens), leaving the disciplinary work to its most Hot Blooded member while they sit back, relax and drink tea.
Kingyo Chuihou: the president literally owns the school.
Clamp School Detectives; note that this series has absurdly powerful student councils for each grade division, leading to (say) the chairman of the Elementary Division Council consulting with the chairlady of the Kindergarten Division Council over plans for festivals that shut down all actual schoolwork through to the University level for weeks.
Gokujou Seitokai: This trope is pretty much the premise of the show. The titular seitokai (student council) has military, law enforcement, and intelligence/ninja divisions, and is pretty much hand-picked by its president, Jinguuji Kanade, for reasons that she mostly keeps to herself. President Kanade believes in not restricting the freedom of the students, which limits the near-absolute control the council could otherwise exert.
Chou Kuse Ni Narisou.
In the manga Hana Kimi, the student heads of the three school dormitories have the combined power to veto a school authority's decision. They are also fully responsible for the conduct of their juniors and fellow classmates of the respective dormitories that they are in charge of.
Kujibiki Unbalance, in which the entire premise of the show consists of a group of students trying to become this, by either competing against a bunch of other teams (in the original fake TV series/real OVA) or just training (in the real TV series).
The Grace organization in Red Garden.
Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu
- 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—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.
- Maria-sama ga Miteru revolves around one.
- 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 Presidents) 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.
  - 'Usual' lighthearted tone? Clearly you have a heart of stone, the scene where Shizuma breaks down, and the flashback episode are just two examples of how dramatic the series is.
Subversion: 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).
Subverted in Haunted Junction, in which the Student Council President can literally summon and command the school principal (who is a ghost) via a magic amulet...but is kept so busy with ghost-hunting in general that he has no time to attend classes or interact with the other students at all, much less wield authority over them.
Played straight in Kamito Sengoku Seitokai, where most of the early part of the manga revolves around a search for a replacement for the vacant slot of Student Council President.
In Code Geass, Ashford Academy is owned by a former noble family that built the first Humongous Mecha, and the youngest daughter is the Student Council President; this means that the average students are subject to her playful whims like Complete Silence Parties and the Crossdressing Festival. And this all is before we get into the School Festival where they use a decommissioned mecha to try and make the world's largest pizza.
Subverted in Weiss Kreuz Glühen: 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 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! Precure 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 Suzumiya Haruhi, Itsuki's organization creates one to fit this trope. The Student Council President actually laughs about how ridiculous the premise is... while slowly getting sucked into acting this way for real. (This happens a lot in the show.)
Gakuen Heaven
Subverted in Medabots — 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 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.
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.
- Not to mention that he can effectively force students to change their majors if he decides it's in the city's best interest.
Subverted in Katawa Shoujo, in which Shizune and Misha are two members of the Student Council. The only members, unless Hisao joins them. As an example of there lack of power, While much work is pushed on to them for the School Festival, including management of budgets and the creation of most of the stalls, they lack the authoritative power to recruit help, or even make sure that everybody gets paperwork in. (Oh, and the president is deaf and mute. Makes it so easy talking with others.)
The one-shot yaoi manga Bondage is about this. A male student constantly breaks the school rules about smoking and fighting, and is...punished for it every time by the two (male) student council members.
In the manga Medaka Box, the student council is Beyond The Impossible level of powerful, capable of defeating any number of delinquents without effort, trained in ridiculously high levels of martial arts, and seemingly impervious to any school authority for taking whatever actions are deemed necessary to carry out helping students with their requests. All the more amusing that in this case, the student council is one girl, the titular Medaka, whose standards are so high that after being elected Student Council President, she wears all the armbands of the entire student council herself to signify she's the only one capable of doing their jobs to her satisfaction. (Until she eventually gives one to her childhood best friend.)
In Fruits Basket, Yuki ends up becoming the student council president. The council doesn't seem to be especially powerful, though they seem to be a large part of the preparations for at least one school festival. Rather, the student council seems to be more of a gathering of most of the people least suited to be a part of the group.
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.
- Well teacher/student interaction is never really seen between him and the teachers so...
- Though he does have 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, this troper is sure that the teachers probably doesn't want to interact, let alone try and stop him.
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.
The Seventh Public Morality Enforcement Squad in Shattered Angels.
Kanon, where the student council apparently has some say in whether or not students get expelled or not (in the 2006 anime, at least. In the original game, the signature of a student council member was needed to get the school board to revoke an expulsion, implying that the council had influence in such matters but was did not actually have the authority to make such decisions on their own.
One of these types of Student Councils appears to be the focus of Seitokai No Ichizon, though they tend to get distracted by Conversational Troping so often it's a wonder they get anything done.
Apparently in Hayate X Blade, the Student Council President, Shizuku, can do anything she wants and makes any rule at all (with exceptions for certain people) spontaneously for her own sadistic amusement. Well, She was the one that created the Hoshitori/Sword Bearers' Tournament. Anyways back on the actual topic, the entire council consists of the best Sword Bearers in the school that decides everything that goes on with the school. I actually don't remember seeing teachers in the manga except for one.

Film

Revenge Of The Nerds.
Sydney White applies this to the Student Council of a university with The Libby as the Student Council President.

Literature

The Vigils in The Chocolate War are somewhere between this and a gang.
Deconstructed in The Lottery where the council uses threats, bullying, blackmail amongst other methods to maintain its absurd power.

Live Action TV

Live action example: 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 Nakama in attendance. Despite the liters upon liters of fake blood splashed all over the bathroom, the nurse's office, and three different girls' uniforms — not to mention the fact that all seven students apparently skip class for the rest of the school day — there is no indication that the adults at the Two Teacher School (or the girls' parents, for that matter) ever learn of the affair.
Subverted in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, when Jenny found she could not fulfil any election promises after the election.
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, The Libby 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 role.
In Degrassi The Next Generation, during the shooting episode, Jay says "When your girlfriend's student council vice president, nobody asks questions."
The Truth In Television version of this — the British-public-school student hierarchy — 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.
"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."
This troper recalls an inversion in an episode of The Suite Life Of Zak And Cody where Zak becomes Student Council President and finds he can't fulfill any of his election promises.

Manhwa

In Veritas the student council can organize death matches.

Real Life

Real Life inversion: in the United States, teacher's unions are VERY powerful forces in Federal politics, as their size gives them significant money (from dues) for campaign contributions, and significant voting power.
- And yet, their dues payers continue to work for the lowest wages in the country for any job that requires a college degree. So Yeah...
- Of course, it's all but impossible to fire incompetent or even criminal teachers in some large urban areas (most notably New York City, where teachers suspected of being sexual predators are removed from teaching duties, but are not fired. They keep their full salary).
  - Likely because firing someone on suspicion alone will most certainly result in an ugly lawsuit.
Partial truth in television: the Sudbury Valley School and others like it have a School Meeting which works very much like an Absurdly Powerfull Student Council, except that it includes staff and faculty as well as students. They vote on about everything school related including hiring and firing staff members, and they have a special committee to hand out disciplinary action.
While student positions in High School or below are generally powerless, student positions at Colleges are often far more influential. For example, the student trustee of many institutions will often have a full vote that is fully equal to those of the other school trustees. Also, many schools have student run boards set up to manage the portion of student fees used for student organizations. In large schools, this can easily lead to control of many thousands of dollars.

Web Comic

El Goonish Shive has averted this; the duties of the student council so far seem to be announcing rules the principal made.

Web Original

The Flash series Xin is a good example of this trope in the last half of the series, the first half dealing with a completely anarchical school.
Survival Of The Fittest V3's student council from Southridge High School. Whilst they don't, perhaps, reach the same extremes as some of the examples listed here, they're shown at least to have quite some actual power as regards to the running of the school. For example, one character joins the council in order to force the school to take action against the rampant sexual harassment going on (though in that character's case it was more her and her family threatening legal action than the position in the school council that got the school to act).

Western Animation

The trope is subverted in the obscure Peanuts television special, "You're (Not) Elected, Charlie Brown," when Linus runs for class president (bear in mind he's assumed to be in second grade or so). He makes all sorts of outrageous promises and manages to win, but then meets with the principal and discovers he has no actual power whatsoever.
- A similar situation occured in one episode of Invader Zim, but with the level of control ridiculously present throughout the whole episode, and the winner of the election had his mind controlled anyway.
Parodied on Clone High: the most important decisions that the Student President made were the placement of rugs in the library.
X Middle School in Fillmore has its own student-run police force that enforces all of the school rules and runs like a real world police force. They pretty much take it upon themselves to make sure their fellow classmates play nice.
- Though it's made clear on multiple occasions that they answer to the teachers, or at least the principal.
Subverted in The Simpsons episode "The President Wore Pearls." Upon being elected Student Council President, Lisa expects to have a say in the school's affairs. However, Chalmers and Skinner sidetrack her by turning her into a glamorous Eva Peron lookalike and tricking her into authorizing the elimination of music, art and gym. Doubly subverted when Lisa uses her moral authority to call a student strike, ultimately reversing the cuts.
In Bromwell High, the student council president is given absolute power, even above that of the headmaster, though this is only discovered by digging through the school records. Lampshaded with a comment about naive optimism.
Natella (reading): We hope that future generations will benefit from our muddled and misguided idealism.
In Codename Kids Next Door the student council president has his own office, can use powerful technology to force kids into school on snow days, and can declare war on other grades. They apparently can debate with the school board on a few issues as well. The safety patrol/hall monitors act like a police force, arresting students and keeping them in detention.
In The Fairly Oddparents, the Student Council President can cut in line (with a springboard to any student that doesn't let them), has his own bathroom stall and office, his own security detail, and apparently has important duties. This might be where the popular kids' bodyguard comes from as well.

Video Games

Played generally straight in Final Fantasy VIII. Balamb Garden has a "disciplinary committee" composed entirely of antagonist Seifer and his henchmen, Fujin and Raijin. Considering their own disregard of authority, it's likely they appointed themselves, but they seem to have a fair amount of weight to throw around amongst the other SeeD cadets.
Persona 3 has a student council president capable of covering up crimes, creating fake student profiles, and bosses teachers around. To be fair, she is the daughter of the family that built the school.
Pretty much the whole plot of Disgaea 3. Mao, as Dean/Overlord, can kill or enslave anyone he chooses. Also, there's a Student Council club in the game that allows for extra votes (not that you need to, after being able to kill everyone in the voting sessions).

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