The Presidency Synthesis

 

Over the course of history, the president’s power has become larger than what the framers envisioned. The Constitution grants the president command of the nation’s military, but only Congress can declare war. Nevertheless, presidents on their own authority have launched military attacks abroad on more than a two hundred occasions.  This has led some to call the modern presidency an imperial presidency: one where the president makes actions without the consent of Congress.

The President can act as a diplomatic leader with the ability to appoint ambassadors and negotiate treaties with other countries, subject to a two-thirds vote of the Senate. In 1937, the Supreme Court ruled that executive agreements, formal agreements that presidents make on with foreign nations, are legally binding in the same way treaties are.

The Constitution also gives the president “executive power”, which is the ability to decide how laws will be implemented. The Constitution also gives the president legislative authority, which includes the use of the veto and the ability to propose legislation to Congress. The pocket veto occurs when a president does not sign a bill within ten days and Congress adjourns within the ten days. The Supreme Court declared legislative vetoes of presidential actions unconstitutional in INS v Chadha (1983). The line-item veto law in 1994 said that the president could strike out individual items from bills, but the Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional as well.

The President has grown to be so powerful due to two factors: national election ad singular authority. These two factors make the President most suited to be called the nation’s leader. The nineteenth century view of the president was expressed in the Whig theory, which said that the presidency is a limited or constrained office where the president has limited power within the powers given to him. Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 cast it aside and adopted the stewardship theory, which called for a strong presidency that was limited not by what powers it had, but what powers it were denied.

The Presidency needs to be strong due to Congress being ill suited to direct the many programs and agencies required to run a country. In the Presidency, final authority rests on a single individual, the president. The President has also grown powerful in foreign policy. Foreign policy requires singleness of purpose and, at times, fast action.

On four occasions, candidates have lost the election even though they received the most popular votes, due to electoral votes being the key factor. In 1824, Congress was called upon when neither JQA nor Andrew Jackson received a majority of electoral votes. In 2000 when Al Gore received the most popular votes, Bush still won thanks to electoral votes, along with the running of third-party candidate Ralph Nader.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment defines presidential disability and succession, where the president passes his presidential power to the vice president. For a short time, Reagan was considered disabled while going through surgery to recover from an assassination attempt. After the vice president’s seat becomes vacant, the president nominates a new VP, and both houses have to approve via a majority. This occurred after Nixon’s VP resigned in 1973. After the VP, the Speaker of the House is the successor.

The selection process of the President has changed over time. Initially, party nominees were chosen in congressional caucuses, and Electoral College members acted somewhat independently in their Presidential voting. From 1832-1900, party nominees were chosen in national party conventions by delegates selected by state and local party organizations, while Electoral College members cast their ballots for the popular-vote winner in their respective states. When a candidate campaigns before primaries or caucuses start, it is called an invisible primary. A candidate seeking the presidency must have campaign momentum: starting strong in the primaries and caucuses. The presidential election follows the unit rule, where the candidate with the most electoral votes in a state gets all the electoral votes of the state. An open party caucus allows all people to vote regardless of party identification.

The President can impound funds, where the president refuses to release appropriated funds to executive agencies. Congress in 1974 responded with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act, which required the president to spend all appropriated funds and set up an independent Congressional Budget Office.

Executive privilege is the ability of the president to protect personal material. Nixon tried to use this ability during the Watergate Scandal, but the Court qualified executive privilege to not apply to this case.

Congress created the Executive Office of the President (EOP) in 1939 to provide the president with the staff imperative for coordination of executive functions. The EOP has since become the command center of the presidency. The White House Office (WHO) consists of the president’s closest personal advisers. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) consists of experts who formulate and administer the federal budget the National Security Council advises the president on foreign and military affairs. Policy experts staff many of the EOP’s organizational units. Individuals in the WHO are among the most powerful individuals in Washington.

The heads of the fifteen executive departments constitute the president’s cabinet. Although the cabinet once served as the president’s main advisory group, presidential advisors in the EOP have replaced that function. The president, subject to confirmation by the Senate, appoints cabinet members. The office of secretary of state is widely regarded as the most prestigious cabinet post. The President also appoints the heads and top deputies of federal agencies and commissions, as well as two hundred ambassadors.

Strong presidents have usually a strategic vision of where they want to lead the country, as well as a clear sense of how their ideas intersect with Americans’ aspirations. Good leadership attributes include the ability to manage a crisis, demonstrate leadership, appoint quality officials, set and clarify the national agenda, achieve a legislative agenda, and achieve success in the foreign policy arena. Examples include Kennedy’s New Frontier; Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society; Nixon’s foreign policy achievements and the ending of the Vietnam War; Reagan and George H.W. Bush and ending the Cold War.

The honeymoon period is the president’s first 100 days of office where the president has great relations with Congress, lots of success passing bills, and great approval ratings.