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CHAPTER10ThePresidency.ppt
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CHAPTER TEN

The Presidency

Presidential Power Is Rooted in the Constitution

Presidential Selection

  • The framers thought a unitary executive would be energetic and thus better able to protect the nation's interests.
  • Presidents are selected in indirect elections through the Electoral College.
  • The presidency was strengthened by the introduction of the national convention system of nominating presidential candidates.

Presidential Government

  • The development of presidential government as we know it today did not mature until Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and his New Deal of the 1930s. Since then, every president has been strong, whether committed to the strong presidency or not.

Expressed Presidential Powers

  • The president's expressed powers, which are granted by the Constitution, fall into five categories — military, judicial, diplomatic, executive, and legislative.

Commander in Chief

  • The position of commander in chief makes the president the highest military authority in the United States, with control of the entire defense establishment. The Constitution delegates to the president, as commander in chief, the obligation to protect every state against invasion and domestic violence.

Distinct Presidential Powers

  • The presidential power to grant reprieves, pardons, and amnesty involves power over all individuals who may be a threat to the security of the United States.

Treaties and
Executive Agreements

  • The power to receive representatives of foreign countries allows the president almost unconditional authority to determine whether a new ruling group can indeed commit its country to treaties and other agreements. Recently, presidents have increased the use of executive agreements instead of treaties.

Executive Powers
and Privileges

  • The president's executive power consists of the ability to appoint, remove, and supervise all executive officers and to appoint all federal judges (with Senate approval).
  • Another component of the president's power as chief executive is executive privilege — the claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without presidential consent.

Presidential Legislative Power

  • The president's legislative power consists of the constitutional requirement to deliver a State of the Union address and the president's constitutional power to veto any acts of Congress.
  • Though not explicitly, the Constitution also provides the president with the power of legislative initiative, which implies the ability to formulate proposals for important policies.

Executive Orders

  • The president can issue executive orders, which are, first and foremost, simply normal tools of management: rules-setting procedures, etiquette, chains of command, functional responsibilities, and others. But evolving out of this normal management practice is a recognized presidential power to promulgate rules that have the effect and formal status of legislation.

Delegated Powers

  • Powers given to the president by Congress are called delegated powers. Because of the expansion of government in the last century, Congress has voluntarily delegated a great deal of its own legislative authority to the executive branch.

Claims of Inherent Power

  • Presidents have also claimed inherent powers, which are not expressed in the Constitution but are inferred from it. For example, though the president is commander in chief, only Congress can declare war. However, presidents have gone a long way in capturing this power for themselves. In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution as a response to presidential unilateralism, but presidents have generally ignored it.

Institutional Resources of Presidential Power Are Numerous

Presidential Officials, Staff
and Assistants

  • Collectively, the thousands of officials and staffers who work for, assist, or advise the chief executive could be said to make up the institutional presidency and to give the president a capacity for action that no single individual could duplicate.

The Cabinet

  • The Cabinet is the designation for the heads of all the major federal government departments, but it is not a collective body. It meets but makes no decisions as a group.

The White House Staff

  • The White House staff, which is composed primarily of analysts and advisers, has grown from an informal group of fewer than a dozen people to a new presidential bureaucracy.

Executive Office of the President

  • A major part of the institutional presidency is the Executive Office of the President, which is larger than the White House staff and comprises the president's permanent management agencies. The Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers both fall under this category.

Utilizing the Vice-President

  • As the institutional presidency has grown in size and complexity, most presidents of the past 25 years have sought to use their vice presidents as a management resource after the election.

The First Spouse

  • First spouses have traditionally limited their activities to the ceremonial portion of the presidency, though some first spouses have been more involved in policy aspects of the presidency.

Party, Popular Mobilization, and Administration Make Presidents Stronger

Expanding Presidential Power

  • Generally, presidents can expand their power in three ways: through popular mobilization, through administration, and through their party.

Party Members in Control

  • Although all presidents rely on the members and leaders of their own party to implement their legislative agendas, the president does not control his or her own party; in fact, party members have considerable autonomy. During periods of divided government, the president's party is in the minority in Congress.

Going To The Public For Greater Power

  • "Going public" as a source of presidential power has been especially significant in the past 50 years. Going public by using the Internet has changed how modern presidents govern, allowing them to broadcast policy ideas directly to citizens. But popular support for the president can be fickle and tends to decline over the course of a president's administration.

Expanding Presidential Reach and Power

  • Contemporary presidents have increased the administrative capabilities and power of their office by enhancing the reach and power of the Executive Office of the President, increasing White House control over the federal bureaucracy, and expanding the role of executive orders and other instruments of direct presidential governance.

Limiting Presidential Power

  • Presidential power continues to be limited by the congressional power of the purse, decisions made by foreign leaders, and periods of divided government.

The Presidency and Your Future

Unilateral Presidential Action

  • Vivid examples of the decisive shift toward increased presidential power can be seen in the important policy arenas of national defense and the federal budget. The growth of executive power may lead to quick and unilateral presidential action and may make the policies presidents favor more likely to become the law of the land.