The United States is rare among democracies in that the role of president is not primarily ceremonial, as it is in most parliamentary governments, but is instead the most powerful role in U.S. government, and the quadrennial U.S. presidential elections are of great importance to both the country and the world at large. This article provides a link to interactive election maps and lists those elections in chronological order. (For more information about the office of the U.S. presidency, see presidency of the United States of America.)