Is there any difference between deputies & lawmakers? [closed]

In America, "lawmakers" would be the people who write and approve laws. At the federal level and in most states these are Senators and Representatives. City governments may have a City Council or commission that makes laws. Lawmakers literally make laws.

A deputy is a substitute for some officer. The most common example is in law enforcement, where a police department has deputies (they may be volunteers, or lack the full training and authority of normal police).

Many organizations in the government call their second in command a "deputy". A county may have a coroner who is responsible for investigating deaths in their county, and their second in command may be the Deputy Coroner.

Outside of America, many federal lawmakers are called deputies. For example, Colombia's legislature is called Camara de Diputados - the Chamber of Deputies.


A deputy can be anyone acting for and deriving authority from another. In American English at least, the term usually refers to a sworn peace officer working under an elected county sheriff, but the term is indeed sometimes applied to members of representative legislative bodies. See Chamber of Deputies (Wikipedia) for countries and periods with which this terminology is associated.