As in “Deputy Secretary of XYZ” or “Deputy Prime Minister”. Whats the difference between a Deputy X and a normal X?
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A Deputy X is the person who works directly under X and can assume their role in certain conditions.
For example, a Deputy Secretary of XYZ works under the Secretary of XYZ, and depending on what they’ve setup, has the authority to do certain things that the actual Secretary of XYZ has authorized them to do. Similarly, a Deputy Prime Minister is authorized by the PM to act in certain situations on their behalf.
Deputy is under the Secretary. The secretary is like the sheriff and the deputies are under.
The deputy works for the other one. The deputy Prime Minister works for the Prime Minister. The deputy Secretary works for the secretary. They are typically only one level down (like the deputy Prime Minister is often akin to the Vice President in many ways, but not all)
A deputy is someone who acts on behalf of someone else. Sort of like a substitute. So a deputy secretary is not the actual secretary but is acting as the secretary. The term can be used in slightly different ways for specific titles but it comes from the same origin. For example a Sheriffs Deputy is acting on behalf of the Sheriff when out on patrol as the actual Sheriff is likely sitting at his desk and are therefore not present police the community. And some uses of deputy is synonymous with vice as in a vice prime minister and a deputy prime minister is describing the same function, someone who can act as the prime minister when the prime minister is unavailable.
Sometimes the Deputy Prime Minister is the leader of a smaller member party of a coalition government. This is why Belgium has about seven of them.
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