Political Science Discussion

THE PRESIDENCY

CONSTITUTION ON THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

• Article II deals with the presidency – At 1 ½ pages it is much shorter than Article I – Expansion of executive power

• Many of the founders wanted a strong executive but knew that if they included one in the Constitution it probably wouldn’t pass since we had just split from a country with a strong executive

• By saying little about the executive in the Constitution they said little about what the executive couldn’t do

• This allowed presidents to expand the power of the office and today it’s much stronger than in 1789

ROLES OF PRESIDENT

• There are two roles for executives – Head of state is the ceremonial role like the

monarch plays in the United Kingdom – Head of government actually runs the

government like the prime minister in the United Kingdom

– Most western democracies have different offices to do each role

• Either a monarch and prime minister or a president and prime minister

• The U.S. President plays both roles

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive – In this role the president enforces laws – The Cabinet

• Secretaries of departments make up the cabinet and assist the president in enforcing laws

– Cabinet secretaries are appointed by president and confirmed by Senate

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive – The bureaucracy is all the people who work

for the government enforcing policy • Congress passes laws and the bureaucracy

enforces them • People who work in the bureaucracy are civil

service employees who the president can’t fire • Therefore the president doesn’t have as much

control over them as he would like • This means presidents sometimes can’t change

policy as much as it might appear

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive – Models of Bureaucracy

• The acquisitive model says that agencies get bigger a little at a time (incrementalism) so eventually get very big and have very big budgets

– This adds to budget deficits and the national debt

• The garbage can model says that when agencies make regulations it’s an inefficient trial and error process and policies may not work

– Bad policies are just thrown away and new ones tried

• The monopolistic model says that bureaucratic agencies are like monopolies and have the same problems as monopolies

– Costs increase, customer service is poor

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive – Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce

the number of regulations affecting people • One way is through a cost – benefit analysis where

you calculate the financial cost of the regulation to business and society and the economic benefit to society and only establish the regulation if the benefit is more than the cost

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive – Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce

the number of regulations affecting people • When President Reagan did this Democrats in

Congress accused him of rigging the data so no regulation passed the analysis

– The president uses the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to calculate the numbers and Congress didn’t trust the OMB’s numbers

– Therefore Congress created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which came up with it’s own, possibly rigged numbers

– We still have both offices

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Executive • Iron triangles are agreements between an

executive branch agency, a congressional committee and an interest group or business that benefits all three but costs taxpayers money

• The business contributes to the committee members’ campaigns so they get reelected then the committee members grant government contracts to the business that may not be necessary

• The agency agrees that the contracts are necessary in exchange for larger budgets

– They all gain but taxpayers lose

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Commander in Chief – Congress declares war but we haven’t

declared war since 1941 – We’ve had many “wars” since because the

president can make war • Korea 1950 • Vietnam 1964 or earlier • Iraq 1990

• Afghanistan 2001

• Iraq 2003

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Commander in Chief – The president can create conditions that

make a declaration of war more likely • Mexican – American War

– In 1846 President Polk wanted to expand southern slave territory but Mexico (which used to include most of the Southwest) was in the way

– He couldn’t just attack Mexico unprovoked and steal half of their country

– Instead he sent U.S. troops into a disputed border zone that we said was the U.S. and Mexico said was theirs

– Of course Mexico attacked the troops – We then declared war and took ½ of Mexico

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Commander in Chief • Vietnam war

– President Johnson wanted to expand the war

– In the Gulf of Tonkin Incident he sent a U.S. ship into North Vietnamese territorial waters

– The Vietnamese shot at the ship but did no real damage

– Later the U.S. ship thought they were under attack again although they actually weren’t

– Johnson told the American people and Congress that the ship had been attacked in international waters (a lie)

– Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which wasn’t a declaration of war but did greatly expand the our involvement in Veitnam

– We eventually lost the war

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Commander in Chief • Vietnam war

• When Congress found out they were tricked into passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution they passed the War Powers Act in 1973

– This law says the president can only make war for 60 days without congressional approval

– After that Congress can terminate funding for the war activities which gives them some control over war powers

– The War Powers Act is probably a violation of separation of powers but the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on it

– Presidents have wisely gained congressional approval before making war in observance of the law and to show the enemy that the country is united in the war effort

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Diplomat – The president also plays the role of chief

diplomat • This means the president is the head of foreign

policy – The president is the main negotiator in cases like peace

treaties or international agreements (free trade agreements or environmental agreements for example)

– Remember however that the Senate must ratify any treaties that the president negotiates

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Legislator – Presidents play a key role in law making

• They must sign bills for them to become law

• If they don’t sign bills two things can happen

• Usually the bill becomes law in 10 days • However there is a special case is called a pocket

veto – This is where the 2 year congressional session ends

within the 10 days and the bill dies when congress adjourns

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Legislator – Of course the president can veto bills

• But Congress can override the veto with a 2/3 vote of both the House of Representatives and Senate

• Sometimes the president signs a bill but adds a signing statement

– That’s a note that says they’re not going to enforce the bill, however a future president can enforce the bill

• A line item veto is vetoing just a part of a bill – The U.S. president doesn’t have this power but the

California governor does – It allows the governor to line out wasteful spending that’s

only in the bill to help a legislator get reelected

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Legislator – The president also proposes bills

• Many bills are proposed during the State of the Union address

– Going public is where the president tries to gain public support for the bill which might encourage Congress to pass it

• The bully pulpit refers to the fact that the media is likely to cover presidential statements so it’s easier for presidents to get their message out to the public

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• Chief Legislator – The power to persuade refers to presidents’

efforts to convince individual members of Congress to vote for a bill they’ve proposed

• This depends on the president’s political skills and how well they work with members of Congress

– The Johnson Treatment refers to President Lyndon Johnson’s strategy of starting out nice and slowly becoming more mean when trying to convince members of Congress to vote for his bills

DUTIES OF PRESIDENT

• The president also plays the role of chief of their political party – They appoint the chair of their party – They are an effective fundraiser for their party

and its candidates – The president tries to boosts the morale of

members of their party when they lose badly in elections like the Democrats did in 2010 and 2014

PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

• Executive orders are where presidents issue decrees almost like laws that don’t pass Congress for example: – Japanese-American “Relocation Centers” – Wage and price freeze to try to reduce

inflation during the economic crisis of the early 1970s

– Usually someone sues arguing that the president has exceeded their power and the Supreme Court decides if they did

PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

• Executive privilege is where presidents claim something doesn’t apply to them – The Supreme Court usually decides if it does – Nixon said he didn’t have to give tape

recordings to Congress, the Court said he did – Clinton said Paula Jones couldn’t sue him for

sexual harassment, the Court said she could – Cheney said he didn’t have to reveal who met

with him to make energy policy, the court agreed with him

PRESIDENT VS. CONGRESS

• Split ticket voting – Where people vote for the candidate of one

party for president and the other party for Congress

• This can lead to divided government where different parties control the two branches

– Drawbacks are nothing gets done and we don’t know who to blame if it doesn’t but a benefit is if something does get done then it has input from both parties

• United government – The opposite of divided government with the opposite

benefits and drawbacks

CALIFORNIA PLURAL EXECUTIVE

• “Cabinet” members in California (Secretary of State, Attorney General, etc.) are elected by the people not chosen by the governor – Therefore those officials may not work with

the governor and may even be from the other party

– This weakens the California governor because they don’t get to choose their team which would then help them like the president