precedence

Order or rank in which people should be placed on ceremonial occasions, depending partly upon letters patent and partly upon ancient custom. Questions of precedence are the responsibility of the Earl Marshal in England and Wales, and the Court of the Lord Lyon in Scotland. Precedence cannot be derived from a female, except in the case of a peeress in her own right.

In the USA, the order of precedence is as follows: sovereign or president of a foreign state, the president, the vice-president (in the absence of the president), ambassadors, the chief justice of the USA, the vice-president (when the president is present), the Speaker of the House of Representatives, associate justices of the Supreme Court, the secretary of state, the secretary of the Treasury, foreign ministers plenipotentiary, the secretary of war, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, the secretary of the Navy, the secretary of the interior, the secretary of agriculture, the secretary of commerce, the secretary of labour, senators, the House of Representatives, the chief of staff of the army and the chief of naval operations, general of the army (5 stars), fleet admiral (5 stars), generals (4 stars), admirals (4 stars), and governors of states. Precedence in the USA is always determined by the office a person holds and not by the rank he or she may hold.