The word "caretaker" may have numerous meanings, but the most common two are (1) a person or persons who cares for a property in exchange for rent-free living accommodations and (2) temporary government which takes control until a stable rule can be restored.

Property caretakers

A caretaker might refer to a property caretaker: a person who cares for real estate in exchange for rent-free living accommodations, and with the possibility of additional compensation. The caretaking profession includes positions as housesitters, ranch sitters, bed & breakfast and innsitters, property managers, estate managers, and hosts at resorts or campgrounds. A caretaker is generally distinguished from a “caregiver,” someone with health care skills who is employed to care for another person, often as a live-in aide.

Caretaking is actually a very old profession, rooted in the British tradition of land maintenance. In 1868, The Times defined a caretaker as “a person put in charge of a farm from which the tenant has been evicted.” Today that definition has been expanded to cover a multitude of landowner/caretaker relationships. The number and diversity of these relationships has increased during the past decade. The caretaking profession continues to grow in popularity as more landowners discover the benefits of having a caretaker(s) on their property. In some contexts, a caretaker may also be a janitor. The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ... A tenant (from the Latin tenere, to hold), in legal contexts, holds real property by some form of title from a landlord. ... A janitors bucket with mop A janitor or caretaker (term used in British English) is a person who takes care of a building, such as a school, office building, block of flats. ...

The position of a caretaker can be well demonstrated in the movie The Shining. The Shining may mean: The Shining (novel), by Stephen King The Shining (film), Stanley Kubricks adaptation of the novel The Shining (mini-series), the ABC mini-series scripted by Stephen King The Shining, a song from Badly Drawn Boys album The Hour Of Bewilderbeast The Shining (SpongeBob SquarePants...

In politics

Caretaker governments

In politics, a caretaker government rules temporarily. A caretaker government is often set up following a war until stable democratic rule can be restored,or installed. in which case it is often referred to as a provisional government. Look up Politics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Politics (disambiguation) Democracy History of democracy List of democracy and elections-related topics List of years in politics List of politics by country articles Political corruption Political economy Political movement Political parties of the world Political party Political psychology Political sociology Political... War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies, ultimately, with the citizenry. ... A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime. ...

Caretaker governments may also be put in place when a government is a parliamentary system is defeated in a motion of no confidence, or in the case where the house the government is responsible to is dissolved, to rule the country for an interim period until an election is held and a new government is formed. This type of caretaker government is adopted in Bangladesh where an advisor council led by the former chief judge rules the country for 3 months before an elected government takes over. In systems where coalition governments are frequent a caretaker government may be installed temporarily while negotiations to form a new coalition take place. This usually occurs either immediately after aelection in which there is no clear victor or if one coalition government collapses and a new one must be negotiated. A parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. ... A motion of no confidence, also called a motion of non confidence, is a parliamentary motion traditionally put before a parliament by the opposition in the hope of defeating or embarrassing a government. ... A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a cabinet in parliamentary government in which several parties cooperate. ...

Caretakers

Caretakers, similarly, are individuals who fill seats in government temporarily without ambitions to continue to hold office on their own. This is particularly true with regard to U.S. Senators who are appointed to office by the governor of their state following a vacancy created by the death or resignation of a sitting senator. Sometime governors wish to run for the seat themselves in the next election but do not want to be accused of unfairness by appointing themselves in the interim, and sometimes they do not wish to be seen as taking sides within a group of party factions or prejudicing the outcome of a primary election by picking someone who is apt to become an active candidate for the position. At one time, widows were often selected as caretakers; this custom has declined somewhat as women have begun to seek elected office in their own right on a routine basis. Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... A governor is also a device that regulates the speed of a machine. ... A U.S. state is any one of the fifty states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, together with the District of Columbia and Palmyra Atoll (an uninhabited incorporated unorganized territory), form the United States of America. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... A widow is a woman whose spouse has died. ...

In a similar vein, Nelson Rockefeller was said to be a caretaker Vice President of the United States (1974-1977). He was nominated for the office by President Gerald Ford who succeeded the resigned President Richard Nixon. Rockefeller made it apparent that he had no further presidential ambitions of his own (unlike many Vice Presidents) despite having run for the office three times in the past and he had no intention of even running for a full term in the vice presidential office. He kept his intention when Ford's running mate in the 1976 presidential election was Senator Bob Dole). Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), an American politician, was Governor of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States of America from December 19, 1974 to January 20, 1977. ... Richard B. Cheney, 46th and current Vice President of the United States The Vice President of the United States is the second-highest executive official of the United States government, the person who, in the words of Adlai Stevenson, is a heartbeat from the presidency. ... The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Robert Joseph Dole (born July 22, 1923) is best known as a former Republican United States Senate Majority Leader and Senator from Kansas from 1969-1996. ...