Federal Government SLO

Chapter 12 The presidency

Article 1:

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Learning Objectives

1. Classify the various leadership roles assumed by modern presidents.

2. Identify both formal and informal powers exercised by the president.

3. Describe the president's role in the legislative process.

4. Evaluate events that have enhanced or undermined presidential power.

5. Analyze the supporting role played by the vice president and key institutions of the executive branch.

Introduction

The president is both head of state and head of government in the US political system. While those who drafted the Constitution anticipated a president who would typically play a subordinate role to that of Congress, the relative balance of power between Congress and the presidency has shifted dramatically over the past century. As presidential power has expanded, so have the size and function of the executive branch which now comprises fifteen cabinet-level departments and an astonishing variety of regulatory bureaucracies. The modern president wears may hats, among them commander in chief, chief diplomat, policy leader, and chief administrator. Though perhaps overestimating his power in this regard, Americans have increasingly looked to the president as steward of the economy as well. This lesson examines the reasons for the growth of presidential power in the modern era and the means by which it is exercised.

Study Questions

1. Define the major roles the presidency occupies.

2. Identify the constitutional requirements for serving as president of the United States.

3. What are the president's most important formal powers as described in the US Constitution?

4. Explain the use of informal powers accumulated by modern presidents:

a. Executive Orders

b. Executive Agreements

c. Executive Privilege

5. What role does the president play in the legislative/budget process?

6. List the president's appointment powers. How does the Senate influence the appointment process?

7. How did the Twenty-second and Twenty-fifth Amendments impact the office of president?

8. Discuss the president's foreign policy powers. What tools does Congress have to restrain the president's deployment of combat troops? Have these tools been effective?

9. Describe the factors that most affect the success or failure of presidential leadership.

10. What role does the vice president play in presidential administrations?

11. What is the Executive Office of the President?

12. Who makes up the membership of the National Security Council? What is the NSC's function?

13. Identify the most powerful Cabinet Departments.

14. What tools does the president use to maintain control over the bureaucracy?

15. What does the phrase "imperial presidency" mean? Does the United States have an "imperial presidency"?Report an Online Accessibility Issue

Article 2:

Qualifications and Roles

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Qualifications, Terms of Office, and Succession

Donald Trump By White House [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThe Constitution requires that the president be a natural-born citizen of the United States, a minimum of 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. The president is elected to a four-year term and is limited to serving two terms since the adoption of the Twenty-second Amendment in 1951. (The president may serve ten years if he or she acquires the office as a result of the death or impeachment of the former president.)

The Twenty-fifth Amendment, adopted in 1967, provides for the appointment of a vice president in the event the office is vacated, as well as the means by which a president may be removed from office and replaced if incapacitated and unable to serve. The Constitution also provides for impeachment, a process allowing Congress to remove the president from office in the event of wrong-doing, specifically for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. A president may be impeached by a simple majority vote of the House of Representatives, but it takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate to actually convict and remove an impeached president from office. Two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were impeached but neither one was removed from office.

Roles of the President

Article II of the US Constitution establishes the president as the head of the executive branch. The president wears many hats in the American political system, among them head of state, head of government, commander in chief, and chief diplomat. The president is the only elected official who is selected, albeit indirectly, by the entire voting populace of the United States. While many presidential powers are formally delegated by the Constitution, a president's informal powers, developed over time through political practice and Congressional or judicial acquiescence, are often just as important in determining presidential effectiveness.

In the federal system, the president is both head of state and government, two roles that are clearly separated in parliamentary systems. As head of state, the president serves as spokesman for the entire country, discarding partisan identity, and represents the United States with foreign governments. As head of government the president is expected to be a policy leader and is head of his political party in Congress. These two roles sometimes exist in tension with one another. Article II specifies that the executive power rests with the president. The executive power encompasses the power to implement and defend the laws of the country. It also implies the ability to act with greater speed and efficiency than Congress. In the words of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, the president is characterized by the ability to act with "decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch."

As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the president directs the use of the military and asserts civilian control over it. Although only Congress has the formal power to declare war, past presidents have used the commander-in-chief power, and their responsibility to faithfully execute (uphold) the laws, to initiate military action without a declaration of war, sometimes without Congressional approval. As chief diplomat, the president's formal powers include negotiating treaties (with the advice and consent of the Senate) and receiving and appointing ambassadors. Presidential practice has also recognized the ability to conduct diplomacy by executive agreement, a less formal agreement with foreign heads of state that does not have the durability of a treaty nor require ratification by the Senate.

Defining Presidential Responsibilities

The president's job description requires him to fulfill seven primary roles. While the Constitution mentions several of these duties, others have evolved over time. This activity focuses on the responsibilities associated with each presidential role.

 LAUNCH ACTIVITY

 

The President's Roles

The president plays seven key roles in executing his duties. Can you determine the principal presidential role in each of these historical events?

 LAUNCH ACTIVITY

 

Additional Resources

Websites

The White House Online The official website for the White House. This site is a source for information about the current president, executive branch news, and White House history.

American Presidents Life Portraits The Peabody Award winning series profiles the men who have served as chief executive of the United States. Provides an in-depth look at each of the presidents, their lives, families, and administrations.

Books

Decision Points, by George W. Bush.  Bush’s memoir brings readers inside the Texas governor’s mansion on the night of the 2000 presidential election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

My Life, by Bill Clinton.  Clinton's memoir chronicles his life growing up in Hope, Arkansas, his education at Georgetown and Harvard, and his ascent to state and national political life. Of particular interest is Clinton's ability to build personal relationships with his fellow politicians and political opponents.

The Reagan Diaries, by Ronald Reagan.  During his eight years as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded his innermost thoughts and observations. They share insights into the extraordinary, the historic, and the day-to-day experiences of the president.

First Presidential Messages: Two Hundred Twenty Years of Inaugural Addresses and Statements on Becoming President, 1789-2009, by George Otey.  This book contains 220 years of inaugural addresses, from George Washington in 1789 to Barack Obama in 2009. In addition to inaugural speeches, this compilation also records the little-known remarks given by those Vice Presidents who have assumed the higher office.

Article 3:

Presidential Powers

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Formal Powers

The Constitution endows the presidency with significant powers in addition to his authority as commander-in-chief and chief diplomat. The president helps set the agenda for Congress’ legislative and budgetary priorities using public proclamation including the annual State of the Union address. Because the president cannot directly introduce bills in the legislature, his formal legislative power is largely negative, consisting of the presidential veto allowing him to strike down bills that have been passed by Congress. Congress may override a veto by a two-thirds vote, but in practice, it is rarely able to muster the required number of votes to do so.

The president also enjoys broad constitutional authority to make appointments, including those to his own cabinet, federal judges (most importantly, Supreme Court justices), and ambassadors. The appointment power is crucial to the effective exercise of executive power as it enables the president to exercise some semblance of control over a huge executive branch and sprawling federal bureaucracy. In all, there are approximately 4,000 individuals whom the president appoints to government office. Most presidential appointments, however, must be made with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The president also has the unqualified power to pardon individuals and even entire classes of people. A pardon is an executive act that releases individuals from criminal liability or punishment. It has been used by presidents for purposes as varied as freeing political campaign donors from prison and absolving conscientious objectors and draft-dodgers of criminal liability. The most famous presidential pardon was Gerald Ford’s pardon of ex-president Richard Nixon for probable criminal wrongdoing in the 1970s Watergate scandal.

Informal Powers

Through presidential practice and tradition, American presidents have acquired informal powers that are not explicitly listed in the Constitution, among them executive orders, executive agreements, and executive privilege. Executive orders are regulations issued by the president that have the force of law. They are used to conduct much of the day-to-day business of governance and direct the behavior of federal bureaucracies. Executive orders may be used by presidents in their role as commander-in-chief, as in President Harry S. Truman’s executive order desegregating the military in 1947, or as a means of implementing Congressional legislation. Executive agreements can be thought of as an informal treaty, taking the shape of a public agreement between the president and another head of state. Unlike a formal treaty, executive agreements do not require ratification by a two-thirds vote in the Senate.

Executive privilege is an implied presidential power allowing the president to keep confidential certain information related to national security or certain communications within the executive branch. In recent decades, executive privilege has been scaled back by a series of Supreme Court decisions defining formidable exceptions to when a president may invoke the concept. For example, in its US v. Nixon (1974) decision dealing with the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled executive privilege does not permit the president to defy a court order mandating the release of information necessary to conduct a criminal trial or investigation.

Limits of Presidential Power: Watergate

In 1974, President Richard Nixon invoked executive privilege to avoid releasing evidence that could implicate him in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Eventually the Supreme Court was forced to test the limits of presidential power. In this video, Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox recalls the dramatic events that led to Nixon’s resignation and offers his perspective on the legal questions surrounding Nixon’s use of executive privilege.

Video Focus Points

Look for answers to these questions when watching the video:

· Was President Nixon subject to judicial process?

· What was President Nixon's reason for not wanting to turn over the tape recordings?

· What was the Saturday Night Massacre?

 

Article 4:

Expansion of Presidential Power

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Although the balance of power between the president and Congress is constantly evolving, the power of the presidency has grown immensely over the past two centuries, particularly in the 20th century. The Framers would be startled by the scope of presidential power today. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, this generally occurred when assertive presidents pushed the prior boundaries of the office or found their powers temporarily expanded by the necessities of war, as with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. However, the most extraordinary expansions of presidential power occurred during the 20th century when a combination of war, economic crisis, and technological changes created conditions favorable, even necessary, for a more powerful presidency.

War

War, which always favors the unity and speed of the executive branch over the deliberation and compromise that characterize Congress, has played a primary role by elevating the importance of the president’s power as commander-in-chief. A useful case study is the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who carefully guided the United States into World War II through gradual commitment of American military resources and personnel in defense of Great Britain against the Germans. Once war was formally declared with Japan and Germany, Roosevelt moved quickly to expand his control over military aims and the economy, while also organizing the questionable internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese American citizens on the West Coast.

Nuclear and Terrorist Threats

The Cold War and the dawning of the nuclear age also accelerated presidential independence in foreign policy and national security. In an era when it takes less than thirty minutes for a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile to strike the United States when launched from halfway around the world, credible deterrence requires a president who is willing to authorize the use of American nuclear weapons without consulting Congress. The dangers of such an explosive situation came close to realization during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when Soviet nuclear missiles were staged in Cuba, just ninety miles from American soil. During a tense thirteen day standoff between President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Union, the United States came close to the brink of nuclear war. In recent years, the post-9/11 terrorist threat has further emphasized the need for presidential leadership that can act quickly when confronting emerging threats, while also highlighting the potential abuses of such leadership. The ability of presidents to commit US armed forces to various combat missions without a formal congressional declaration of war is now well-established, despite the passage by Congress of the War Powers Act in 1973, intended to limit presidential deployment of troops.

Economic Crisis

Economic crises have also tended to concentrate power in the presidency. While the president must still rely on Congress to raise revenue and appropriate money through the legislative process, Congress is much more likely to defer to the president when attempts to deflect economic collapse seem urgent. Franklin D. Roosevelt again provides the classic case study. Upon taking office in 1933 amidst the Great Depression, he requested and received authority from Congress to expand his executive powers to combat the country’s enormous economic problems. The broad range of federal programs and federal bureaucracies created by Roosevelt’s administration laid the foundation for the country’s modern welfare state. More recent examples of the relationship between economic crisis and presidential power can be located in both the Bush and Obama administrations’ assertion of authority over industries considered “too big to fail” such as the banking and automobile manufacturing sectors.

The Media

Modern media technologies have also contributed to the elevation of presidential power with regards to Congress. Radio and television allows presidents to connect more directly and personally with the American public, exercising the power of the bully pulpit to influence public opinion. Some presidents, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt with his famous  fireside radio chats  and Ronald Reagan with his movie actor’s charisma, have been able to exploit media technology more effectively than others. Modern media however, such as twenty-four-hour cable news and the Internet, have proved a double-edged sword when it comes to presidential power. Compared to the first half of the 20th century, modern media is much more aggressive in its coverage of presidential foibles and less deferential in its treatment of a president’s private life. Bill Clinton’s scandal involving Monica Lewinsky and Nixon’s Watergate cover-up vividly illustrate the media’s power to both cripple a presidency and, in the right hands, serve as an effective governing tool.

The Imperial Presidency

Presidential power is generally at its peak in the realm of foreign policy and national security where presidents enjoy fewer constitutional restraints and where the importance of speed and decisive leadership can literally be a matter of life and death. Congressional attempts to limit the president’s ability to initiate combat or deploy troops using his power as commander-in-chief have proven ineffective for the most part, leading some critics to decry the rise of an  imperial presidency  that subverts the traditional scheme of separation of powers envisioned by the Constitution and its Framers. But in the realm of domestic policy, such criticisms fall flat except in rare times of emergency. There the ability of the president to act independently is drastically curtailed, dependent as the office is on Congressional approval of spending, revenue, and statutory authorization. It is in domestic policy that separation of powers reasserts itself with a vengeance, sometimes causing even the most popular presidents to appear weak and ineffective. As with all political institutions, however, the relationship between the presidency and the other branches is fluid and constantly evolving in response to both internal and external factors.

Presidential Power

Driven by the extraordinary actions of certain presidents, and often initiated by national crises, presidential power has increased over the last two centuries beyond what the Framers imagined in the Constitution. But is the increasing concentration of power in the executive branch a threat to the other branches of government? This video explores the factors that have contributed to the growth of presidential power and the resulting effect on the balance of power in government.

Video Focus Points

Look for answers to these questions when watching the video:

· What is executive privilege? How have presidents used this informal power?

· Why does presidential power expand during times of crisis?

· What tools does Congress have to restrain the president's deployment of combat troops? Have these tools been effective?

 

Measuring Presidential Power

Personality and management style can affect a president’s power in office. How do other factors influence presidential power?

 LAUNCH ACTIVITY

 

Virtual Roundtable

While the Framers of the Constitution envisioned a president who would play a subordinate role to Congress, the relative balance of power between Congress and the presidency has shifted dramatically during the past century. Should the President have the power to take actions not specifically authorized by law or the Constitution?

 

Additional Resources

Websites

Cuban Missile Crisis Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has created this website as a resource on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The site includes primary sources such as historical photographs, key documents, and audio and video resources, all of which bring the crisis to life and show how it was experienced by key players.

FDR’s Fireside Chats The American Presidency Project hosts audio of President Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats from 1933 to 1944.

Books

The Imperial Presidency, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.  Schlesinger traces the growth of presidential power over two centuries, from George Washington to George W. Bush, examining how it has both served and harmed the Constitution and what Americans can do about it in years to come. The book popularized the phrase “imperial presidency.”

Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, by James A. Thurber.  Thurber delves deep into the lengthy power struggle between the president and Congress. He interviews leading scholars and former public officials to explore the historical, political, and constitutional issues dividing the two branches.

Article 5:

The Executive Branch

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While the president is the unchallenged head of the executive branch, the job of governance would be almost impossible without a number of key institutions and players to carry out the myriad tasks.

The Vice President

Although the vice president is second in rank to the president within the executive branch, vice presidents have traditionally held  little real power while in office. Although they may cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate as part of their formal constitutional role, Senate ties are a relatively rare occurrence. Therefore, vice presidents play a role that is primarily political once in office: promoting the president's policies, attending fundraisers, and providing leadership in narrowly focused policy areas. When choosing a vice presidential candidate, a president's chief consideration is almost always political: who will best help win the election by securing votes in key states?

The Cabinet

The president oversees fifteen permanent, formal bureaucracies known as cabinet departments. They are dedicated to the formation and implementation of specific policy areas and their traditional importance is largely a function of their history. For example, the Department of State has formal responsibility for diplomacy, while the Department of Defense is responsible for the armed services. Other department titles such as Treasury, Agriculture, Education, etc., are usually self-explanatory. The most recent addition to the cabinet departments, the Department of Homeland Security, was in direct response to the devastating terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and the government's sobering awareness that we have entered a new epoch of terrorist threats. Most cabinet departments are headed by officials who hold the title secretary, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The only department not headed by a secretary is the Department of Justice, led by the attorney general.

The White House

The White House, home of the president and seat of presidential power, is itself a large bureaucracy that must be staffed and managed. Throughout much of US history, this function was carried out in relatively ad hoc fashion by presidential advisors and other political appointees. In 1939, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to organize White House affairs. The EOP has expanded over time to include a diverse set of mini-bureaucracies and actors. The Office of Management and Budget oversees development of the president's budget, a huge and important task when one considers the federal budget is measured in trillions of dollars. The Council of Economic Advisors is a team of prominent economists who forecast economic conditions and assist the president in formulating effective economic policies for the country. The National Security Council (NSC), created in 1947 at the dawn of the Cold War, plays a prominent role in identifying top priorities in national security and the appropriate strategies for addressing them. Almost all important national security decisions made by the president are made after consideration of the NSC's recommendations. The NSC consists of the president, vice president, the secretaries of state and defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (representing the four branches of the armed services), and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other important officers and advisors are included in meetings of the NSC when needed.

The day-to-day operations of the president's immediate office is largely organized by members of the White House staff who have no independent legal authority, but wield power based upon their proximity to and personal relationship with the president. Prominent among these staff members is the president's Chief of Staff, who manages the president's schedule and political strategy, but also oversees other members of the White House staff. Staff members also include the White House Counsel, who provides legal advice directly to the president, and the Director of Communications, responsible for shaping and effectively marketing the president's policies to the press corps and the American public.

 

 CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

 

Additional Resources

Websites

The Vice President The official site provides a biography, the latest news, and video of events involving the vice president.

The Cabinet The official site provides the names of the current president’s cabinet members along with links to the executive departments.

The Office of Management and Budget The official site contains detailed information about the president’s budget including fact sheets, historical tables, and archives of past presidential budgets.

National Security Council The official site includes the latest news on events related to national security as well as detailed information on topics involving national security.

White House Staff The official site lists the names and titles of the current White House Staff members with brief biographies.

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