Discretionary Power

the authority granted by the law to a head of state or government or other high official to act on his own discretion under certain conditions, for instance, in an emergency situation. Widely practiced in bourgeois states, the granting of discretionary power to state and administrative agencies, individual officials, and judges is an expression of the crisis of bourgeois legality. For instance, in 1968 the Federal Republic of Germany adopted the so-called emergency laws granting wide discretionary powers to the government.