presidency

Week 5 Lecture Outline

I. Presidents and prime ministers

Two models of executive leadership exist in representative democracies: prime ministers and presidents. A prime minister is chosen not by the voters but by the members of parliament. In Britain’s parliamentary system, for example, the prime minister is a party leader chosen by elected officials of the party and selected to hold the party together inside Parliament. Once in power, the prime minister appoints other ministers (cabinet officers) from among the members of his/her party in Parliament, a fact that gives the prime minister great leverage. In addition, the prime minister is assured of a great deal of loyalty from ministers because of the tradition of collective responsibility, which requires ministers to publicly support all government policies or, if in disagreement, to resign from office. Moreover, the prime minister is shielded from bearing personal blame for policy failures through the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, which obliges the minister with responsibility for a department with a failed policy to resign. A prime minister is quite likely to have had high-level administrative experience in the national government as well as in Parliament itself.

Presidents, on the other hand, are nominated by conventions in which party professionals are a minority; they must appeal to a majority of the voters and may not have had experience in Washington. They may (often) lack a majority in one or both houses of Congress, and they select cabinet members from among their personal followers, to recognize interest groups or to gain policy expertise for their administration.

A. Characteristics of parliaments

1. Parliamentary system more common than the presidential system in nations with elected party governments

2. Chief executive is chosen by legislature, principally by majority party

3. Cabinet ministers chosen from among the members of parliament

4. Prime minister remains in power as long as his/her party or coalition maintains a stable majority in the legislature

B. Differences between the presidential and parliamentary systems

1. President’s party may not (often does not) have a majority in Congress

2. Presidential candidates nominated by nonlegislators in an election-year convention; prime minister is chosen by party leaders

3. Presidential candidate is selected for his/her ability to win an election; prime minister is selected to maintain a parliamentary majority

4. Presidential candidates often have little administrative or legislative experience; prime ministers have extensive experience

5. Presidents select cabinet members for their personal loyalty and electoral usefulness; prime ministers select as cabinet officials people who can sustain the parliamentary majority

6. Prime ministers can dominate the cabinet and the legislature; presidents may have difficulty in exercising any legislative leadership

II. The powers of the president

The president’s constitutionally defined powers, found mostly in Article II, are not impressive. The Framers debated the office of the president at length. On the one hand, they feared the possibility of monarchical tendencies if the office was made too powerful. On the other hand, they felt that a large nation with foreign enemies required an executive with substantial powers. They also were concerned that the presidents not dominate Congress and that Congress not dominates the president. The assumption that George Washington would be the first president, coupled with the successful balancing of the interests of small and large states in the Electoral College, allowed the Framers to cede power to the president.

The power of commander-in-chief was, at first, not considered to entail much authority; the main military force was expected to be state militias, and the president was thought to lack any independent offensive capability without prior congressional approval. The president also possesses the power to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The wording seems to imply that the president is allowed to do no more than carry out the laws of Congress, but subsequent Supreme Court interpretations of this clause have expanded the scope of presidential authority to act without a specific congressional mandate in domestic affairs.

A. Formal powers are listed in Article II

1. Powers are few and vaguely defined

2. Powers of the president alone

a) Commander-in-chief of armed forces

b) Commissions military officers

c) Grants reprieves and pardons for federal offenses

d) Convenes Congress in special sessions

e) Receives ambassadors

f) Takes care that the laws are faithfully executed

g) Wields executive power

h) Appoints officials to lesser offices

i) Issues executive agreements

3. Powers the president shares with the Senate

a) Makes treaties (Senate must ratify)

b) Nominates ambassadors, judges, high officials (Senate must confirm)

4. Powers the president shares with Congress as a whole

a) Lawmaking

B. Greatest source of power is in politics and public opinion

1. Broad statutory authority has been granted to the executive since the 1930s

2. Public expects presidential leadership, especially in crises

III. The evolution of the presidency

The emergence of the modern presidency is the outcome of nearly 200 years of American history. The first presidents (Washington to John Quincy Adams) established the legitimacy of the presidency, greatly aided by the fact that the national government had little to do. Andrew Jackson, although opposed to a large and powerful federal government, believed in a strong and independent presidency. He greatly expanded the powers of the office. After the end of Jackson’s second term in 1837, Congress reasserted its power and, with the exception of occasional presidential assertions (Polk, Cleveland, and especially Lincoln), remained the dominant institution until the New Deal. Since the inauguration of the modern presidency with Franklin D. Roosevelt, each president has left a mark on the office of the president and on the larger institution of the presidency.

An important source of increased presidential power has always been politics and public opinion; the American people look to the president for leadership and hold this official responsible for national affairs. Richard Neustadt has argued that the president’s success depends not on any formal power but on the ability to persuade, especially as exercised in regard to the people within the Washington establishment.

A. Delegates feared both anarchy and monarchy

B. Establishing the legitimacy of the presidency required the following:

1. Public acceptance of office and its powers

2. Orderly transfer of power (see the “Electoral College” box)

3. Early presidents were cautious, moderate in their use of power, which contributed to general public acceptance

C. The Jacksonian Period (1829–1837) and the reemergence of Congress (1837–1930s)

1. Strong national political parties and mass participation emerged while Jackson was president

2. Jackson used the veto for policy reasons, as well as on constitutional grounds

3. Jackson challenged Congress, relying on his own popularity

4. After Jackson, a hundred years of congressional ascendancy

5. Intensely partisan era, with sharply divided public opinion and close presidential elections

6. Only Lincoln expanded presidential power, especially relying on the executive power—and Congress reasserted itself after his presidency

7. Congress formulated programs; the president was mostly an opponent to—not a leader of—Congress

a) Exceptions were national crises

b) And T. Roosevelt; Wilson also expanded powers

IV. The modern presidency—classifies presidential appointees by their proximity, physically and politically, to the president (The Institutionalization of the Presidency. See the “President: Qualifications and Benefits” box)

Since the New Deal era, the president has headed a vast bureaucracy responsible not only for implementing government policy but also for providing policy initiatives. The job became too big for any single person to manage and culminated in a report from the Brownlow Commission in 1937 bluntly declaring that “the president needs help.” The result was the creation of the White House Office and the Executive Office of the President (EOP).

The White House staff was initially quite small, with presidents often personally answering the telephone and their own mail. The president did not even have a paid secretary until 1857. Rapid growth, however, followed the 1937 recommendation. The staff numbered 51 persons in 1943 and spiraled to 583 in 1971; after this swelling of White House personnel, President Carter reduced the staff to 351, a number that increased only slightly by 1990, to 386. In recent administrations, the numbers have fluctuated as some positions were included in some counts and not in others. Virtually all political scientists, however, agree that the White House staff cannot be cut. Campaign promises to do so, they argue, only create problems later.

Presidents have developed three strategies for organizing the White House Office. In the circular structure, several assistants have direct access to the president. This arrangement maximizes the flow of information to the president but produces internal confusion over lines of authority. In the pyramidal structure, a chief of staff controls access to the president, and positions are organized in a hierarchical formation. This arrangement is more orderly but frequently isolates the president from needed information. Presidents recently have begun to rely more heavily on White House staff for policy proposals than cabinet departments, a fact that creates a stressful relationship within the executive branch. In the ad hoc structure, the president employs task forces and informal groups. President Clinton relied heavily on this organizational approach. In general, however, presidents have preferred the pyramidal structure; Carter shifted to this mode to cut back on the demands by the circular model, which he instituted initially.

A. The White House Office

1. President’s closest assistants; appointees—no Senate confirmation

2. Three types of organization:

a) Circular: a few key assistants report to the president (Carter)

b) Pyramidal: virtually all staff report through the chief of staff (Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan [after 1985], GHW Bush)

c) Cluster: no clear chain of command; ad hoc task forces and key advisors all report to the president (F. Roosevelt, Clinton [early years])

3. Circles and clusters facilitate presidential involvement in policy making; pyramid keeps authority clear and orderly

4. Staff often drawn from campaign; others are recruited later for their policy or Washington expertise

B. Executive Office of the President

The EOP, which includes the White House Office and Office of the Vice President, consists of agencies that perform staff services for the president but are not located in the White House itself. Unlike the White House Office, most of the EOP agencies have a specific function outlined in law, and their heads must receive Senate confirmation. The two most important units in the EOP are the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council.

The cabinet consists of the heads of the federal departments. Occasionally, under Eisenhower, for example, the cabinet has come close to being a truly deliberative body. But cabinet members are heads of vast organizations that they seek to defend, explain, and enlarge. Only a tiny proportion of employees in cabinet departments can be nominated by the president. Cabinet members are now likely to be nominated for their administrative experience and/or policy connections. There is an inevitable rivalry between the White House staff and the department heads as they compete for access to the president on behalf of their own policy priorities.

1. Composed of agencies that report directly to the president; provide staff services; includes

a) Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

b) Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)

c) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

d) Office of U.S. Trade Representative

e) Council on Environmental Quality

f) Office of Personnel Management

2. Agency heads are nominated by president, confirmed by Senate

3. Office of Management and Budget is especially important

a) Assembles and analyzes the annual budget

b) Studies executive branch operations and develops reorganization plans

c) Improves information flow regarding government programs

d) Advocates on behalf of budget and various policies

C. The cabinet

1. Largely a tradition, not in Constitution

2. Cabinet made up of heads of fifteen administrative departments

3. President can appoint less than 1 percent of some department’s employees; civil servants can be fired only with great difficulty

4. Secretaries seek to defend, explain, and enlarge their own departments; this may lead to conflicts with president or within the cabinet

5. Example: Department of Homeland Security

D. Independent agencies, commissions, and judgeships

1. President nominates the heads of a number of agencies that have a quasi-independent status (e.g., Federal Communications Commission, Environmental Protection Agency)

2. Most agency heads can be removed only “for cause”

3. Judges serve for “good behavior”; can be removed only by impeachment

V. Who gets appointed?

Given the president’s lack of constitutional powers and his/her inability to depend on cooperation from Congress or even support from the executive branch, he/she must necessarily rely on persuasion if he/she is to accomplish much. His/her persuasive powers are aimed at three audiences: (1) fellow politicians and leaders in Washington, (2) party activists and officeholders outside Washington, and (3) the public—actually many different publics, each with a different view or set of interests. Any statement the president makes will be carefully scrutinized and perhaps attacked. Therefore, recent presidents have had fewer and fewer impromptu discussions and press conferences and have made more and more prepared speeches. The purpose is to generate personal popularity, which will translate into congressional support. The more popular the president, the higher is the proportion of presidentially supported bills that Congress will pass. Any popularity the president succeeds in gaining is temporary, however. Every modern president except Eisenhower has lost popular support between inauguration and leaving office.

A. President knows few nominees personally

B. Most nominees have had federal experience

1. “In-and-outers,” alternating between government, law firms, educational institutions

2. Cabinet members were once chosen for their political followings; now they are chosen for their political relationships, policy and administrative expertise, and loyalty to the president

C. President considers important voting blocs and interest groups when making appointments

D. Tension or rivalry between department heads and White House staff may develop over policy advising and access to the president

E. Popularity and influence

1. Presidents try to transform public popularity into support in Congress

2. “Presidential coattails” with limited effect in most congressional campaigns because parties are weak and members build their own relationships with constituents

3. Congress members generally believe it is politically risky to challenge a popular president (see Table 10.2, “Partisan Gains or Losses in Congress in Presidential Elections”)

F. The decline in popularity

1. Popularity highest immediately after election (“honeymoon period”); popularity declines by midterm

2. Since 1934, except 1998 and 2002, president’s party has lost seats in the congressional midterm elections (see Table 10.3, “Partisan Gains or Losses in Congress in Off-Year Elections”)

VI. Presidential character

A. Personality affects White House organization and public judgment

B. Presidential personalities: Eisenhower to GW Bush discussed

VII. The power to say no

In addition to the ability to nominate people to office and to persuade the public, the president has three additional prerogatives (two of them quite controversial) with which to influence policy.

The veto: The president can exercise this constitutional power of the office by sending a veto message back to Congress or by doing nothing if Congress adjourns within ten days of sending a bill to the president; this is called a pocket veto. Overturning a veto requires a two-thirds vote in both houses. The veto is a powerful weapon because, historically, fewer than 4 percent of presidents’ vetoes have been overridden. In 1996 Congress enhanced the veto power of the president by enhancing the president’s budgetary rescission authority. This law, however, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

A. Washington to Clinton, less than 4 percent of vetoes overridden by Congress

1. Veto message sent to Congress within ten days; requires two-thirds vote in both chambers to override the veto

2. Pocket veto: president refuses to sign and Congress adjourns within ten days

3. Line-item veto ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 1998

B. Executive privilege

Executive Privilege: The president traditionally has claimed the right to keep communication within the executive branch confidential based on the principle of separation of powers (which would be compromised if the internal workings of one branch could be scrutinized by another branch) and on the president’s need to obtain confidential and candid advice from advisers (who could not be frank if their communications were made public). In the Watergate tapes case (United States v. Nixon) the Supreme Court held that executive privilege did not allow the president to withhold evidence from a criminal investigation. This decision was reinforced, and even expanded, by additional court rulings during the Clinton administration, which further limited executive privilege.

1. Definition: presidential claim that communications between the president and close advisers can be kept confidential

2. Justification: separation of powers and need for confidentiality to secure candid communication

3. United States v. Nixon (1973)—rejected claim of absolute executive privilege; Clinton v. Starr (1998) and Rubin v. U.S. (1998)—rejected executive privilege claims for the Secret Service and president’s government-paid lawyers

C. Impoundment of funds

Impoundment: Many presidents have refused to spend money appropriated by Congress for programs they did not like. Nixon was particularly aggressive in doing this and eventually provoked Congress to pass the Budget Reform Act of 1974, which severely limited presidential impoundment. It is not clear that this matter is settled, however, because the Supreme Court has declared that the legislative veto, an essential part of this act, is unconstitutional.

1. Definition: president refuses to spend funds appropriated by Congress

2. Nixon impoundments prompted Budget Reform Act of 1974, whose status is uncertain following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the legislative veto is unconstitutional

VIII. The president’s program

Immediately on taking office, the president must nominate individuals to fill hundreds of posts and submit a new budget. The president is also faced with the need to present a State of the Union address and to formulate a policy program. There are essentially two ways for a president to develop a program: have a policy on almost every topic (Carter and Clinton) or concentrate on only a few major initiatives or themes (Reagan and George W. Bush). For help in formulating a program, the president can draw on aides and campaign advisers, federal bureaus and agencies, academic and other outside specialists, and interest groups. A controversial proposal may be leaked to the press or floated as a trial balloon to test possible adverse public reaction. The president’s ability to plan is constrained by limited time and a correspondingly narrowed attention span, the likelihood of unexpected crises, and the fact that most federal programs can be changed only incrementally.

A. Putting together a program

1. President can try to have a policy on everything (Carter) or president can concentrate on a small number of initiatives (Reagan)

2. Constraints: workload, unexpected crises, controlled budget; president must be selective

3. Recent years, presidents have had to focus on the economy and foreign affairs

B. Measuring success

1. “Box score”: proportion of president’s measures approved by Congress; presidents usually win less than half the time

2. Proportion of votes in Congress on which president’s position prevails; wins approximately three-fourths of the time—but ignores presidential support of bills that never come to a vote, counts bills that president supported only reluctantly

IX. Presidential transitions

A. Few presidents serve two terms; Twenty-Second Amendment (1951) limits terms to two

B. The vice president

1. May succeed on death of president, when assumes full power; seldom able to succeed by winning election

2. Somewhat “empty job” because only presides over Senate with little leadership opportunity; recent vice presidents have been more activist, for example, Dick Cheney in GW Bush administration

C. Problems of succession

1. Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967) and presidential disability

a) Disability may be declared by president or by vice president and a majority of the cabinet; the latter must be ratified by a two-thirds vote in Congress

b) Vice president who becomes president must nominate a new vice president, confirmed by majority vote in Congress

2. Vacancy in vice presidency places Speaker of the House, then members of cabinet, in line to become president in the event of disability

3. Succession problem arose in the Nixon administration, with resignations of Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Nixon

D. Impeachment

1. Definition: indictment by the House; conviction by two-thirds of Senate

2. Judges are the most frequent objects of impeachment—president simply can fire executive branch appointees/nominees

3. Impeachable offenses: treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors

4. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton impeached, neither convicted by the Senate (requires a two-thirds vote)

X. The president and public policy

A. The president and foreign affairs

1. President stronger in foreign than domestic policy

2. Early in history, secretary of state was the dominant foreign-policy figure

3. President now dominant—may use national security adviser and/or secretary of state as chief foreign-policy adviser(s)

B. Four foreign-policy agencies support president

1. Department of State—oldest; mediates interests of United States and foreign nations

2. Department of Defense—rival of secretary of state; military alliances and aid

3. CIA—possible covert operations; intelligence analysis; responsible for providing information about foreign countries to the president

4. NSC—smallest; staff filters and manages foreign-policy paperwork flow, writes president’s decision memoranda

C. President does have foreign-policy constraints

1. Disagreements among advisers

2. Congress has constitutional role in several areas: confirms ambassadors, ratifies treaties, recommends military spending, and declares war

D. Has Congress been “usurping” foreign-policy powers since the early 1970s?

1. Legislative veto possible on arms sales; may not be constitutional

2. War Powers Act of 1973 (text details provisions), with very uneven presidential compliance

3. Congressional intelligence oversight committees

E. Strongest check on president continues to be public opinion—often see popular support for presidential activism

XI. The president and economic policy

A. Public more critical of president’s economic policy than foreign policy

1. Elections turn more on economic issues than on foreign-policy issues

2. Voters have more personal experience with economic trends

B. President has less control over economy than foreign affairs, however

1. Economic policy authority is more widely dispersed in government than foreign-policy authority

2. Economists disagree in their policy recommendations

C. Key economic advisers to president

1. OMB director (spending cuts, taxes), yet only 25 percent of the budget is “controllable”

2. CEA provides economic studies

3. Secretary of treasury, usually reflects bankers’ concerns

D. Federal Reserve Board

1. Largely independent of the president and Congress

2. Consists of seven persons with fourteen-year terms, nominated by president and confirmed by Senate; chair serves four-year term

3. Influences supply and price of money through buying/selling government securities, controlling reserve requirements, and setting interest rates

E. Budget process

1. Process begins first Monday in February and ends when new fiscal year starts on October 1 (text details schedule)

2. If the budget not enacted on time, continuing resolutions sustain government

3. Budget deficits (and national debt) complicate the process

4. Economists disagree on economic effects of these deficits

5. Choice: cut deficit by raising taxes or cut spending; sharp political disagreements about which to pursue (Democrats with former; Republicans with latter)