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In U.S. politics, the majority leader is a partisan position in a legislative body. If the presiding officer of the body is not elected by the body itself, the majority leader is the floor leader of the majority caucus; otherwise, the majority leader is the second-most senior member of the majority caucus, while the floor leader becomes the presiding officer. Given the two-party nature of the U.S. system, the majority leader is almost inevitably either a Republican or a Democrat.

The majority leader is often assisted in his/her role by whips, whose job is to enforce party discipline on votes deemed to be crucial by the party leadership and to ensure that members do not vote in a way not approved of by the party. Some votes are deemed to be so crucial as to lead to punitive measures (such as demotion from choice committee assignments) if the party line is violated; decisions such as these are often made by the majority leader in conjunction with other senior party leaders.

[edit] See also

• Specific majority leaders
  • Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
  • Majority Leader of the United States Senate
• Minority leader

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