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.

Congress Synthesis

Heh.

Before 1900, a third of the seats in Congress switched hands, mostly voluntarily. The job was not as powerful as it would have been to serve in state governments. Many members of Congress today are professional politicians. The pay is $170,000 and the prestige is high, especially in the Senate.

Incumbents have a roughly 90% of winning reelection. The main reason incumbents win so easily is because their respective parties are so strong in their states. An incumbent caters to the constituency: the people residing in the incumbent’s state or district. Members of Congress work to get federal spending projects, which are mocked as pork, or pork-barrel spending. Incumbents can respond to their constituents’ individual requests, known as service strategy. Incumbents have an advantage when it comes to raising campaign funds. Most PACs are reluctant to go against an incumbent. Nearly 90% of PAC contributions go towards the incumbent. A race without an incumbent is an open-seat election. Midterm elections happen every two years to decide Congressmen.

Seats in the House of Representatives go through reapportionment every ten years after a population census.  The responsibility for House election redistricting rests with state governments. . The majority party can draw the boundaries in a way that favors candidates of its party – a process called gerrymandering. Iowa is an exception that entrusts its redistricting to a nonpartisan commission. In 1962, the landmark Baker v Carr gave way to a series of suits on legislative apportionment. The Supreme Court ruled in Baker v Carr that districts had to be drawn to be near equal in population as possible. In the one man, one vote principle, districts have to provide equal representation for all citizens.

Dem curves.

There are some pitfalls of incumbency. The first comes from disruptive issues; when voters are angry about the existing political conditions, they are more likely to vote incumbents out of office. This happened in 2006 after the Iraq War when twice as many incumbents were voted out of office, most of them Republicans. The second comes from personal misconduct: about a fourth of House incumbents who lost their bids were involved in ethical questions. The third is turnout variation: During midterm elections, the president’s party tends to lose House seats. In the 2010 midterm election, the Democrats lost House seats. More voters tend to show up at presidential elections, where they vote more responsively to the issues of the moment. Voters also vote according to their view of the president’s performance. In primaries, extreme partisans are more likely to vote than moderate ones. Candidates have to choose more extreme sides during the primaries. Incumbents in the Senate face strong opposition because their seats are so attractive, especially to wealthy people. House incumbents face less opposition other than when the electorate is dissatisfied.

The safety of incumbents in US elections means that Congress is not very responsive to changes in public opinion. Congress thus has not made many policy changes despite the changes in public opinion.

House members must be at least twenty-five years of age and have been a citizen for seven years. Senators have age and citizenship requirements of thirty and nine years. Both must be residents of the state they represent. Members of Congress are disproportionately white and male. Congress has a man-to-woman ratio of 4:1. Most members of Congress are Christian, with a plurality being Protestant.

Every two years, at the start of a new term, party members in each chamber elect their party leaders. Party members also meet periodically in a party caucus to plan strategy, develop issues, and resolve policy differences. Party unity is strong in Congress. In Congress, party members tend to vote together on legislation. Democrats and Republicans are often on opposite sides of issues.

Party Leadership in Congress differs slightly between the House and the Senate.  Speaker of the House is active in developing the party’s positions on issues and in persuading party members in the House to support them. The Speaker has the right to speak first during debate on legislation and the power to recognize members, or choose members to speak on the floor. The above power matters because there is limited time on debate. The Speaker chooses the chairperson and majority-party members of the House Rules Committee, which controls the scheduling of bills. The Speaker may ask the Rules Committee to delay sending a bill to the floor until there is sufficient support for its passage. The Speaker is assisted by the House majority leader and the House majority whip. The majority leader organizes the debate on bills and lines up legislative support. The whip informs party members on the positions for critical votes. The minority party also has its House leaders.

The most important position in the Senate is the Senate majority leader. The Senate majority leader has a similar role to the Speaker of the House and is assisted by a majority whip. The Senate majority leader’s position is less powerful than that of the Speaker’s, because Senate members don’t look up for leadership as much and the chamber’s presiding officer is the Vice President. The VP can vote only in the case of a tie. In the absence of the VP, the role of presiding officer job is assigned over to the president pro tempore, who is usually the majority party’s most senior member. The Senate has unlimited debate.

Most of the work in Congress is done through standing committees, which are permanent committees with responsibility for particular areas of public policy. Most standing committees have subcommittees. Select committees are created for a specific time period and purpose. Joint committees provide advisory functions. Conference committees work out differences between House and Senate versions of a particular bill.

A bill is a proposed legislative act. When a bill is proposed to the House or Senate, it is sent to the relevant committee. It goes to the subcommittee, back to the full committee. In the House, it goes through the House Rules Committee, before it goes to the House floor. Markup is the process by which bills are amended, debated, and rewritten. The first function Congress has is the lawmaking function. Congress can make laws authorizing federal programs and appropriating the funds necessary. The complex process of Congress can cause it to struggle with making complex legislation. Congress is supported by three congressional agencies. These are the Congressional Budget Office, which provides monetary insight, the Government Accountability Office, which oversees executive agencies’ spending of money, and the Congressional Research Service, which conducts research and responds to information requests.

The second function is representation. Congress represents the interests of constituents Logrolling involves the trading one’s vote with another member’s so both get what they want. Constituents have little awareness of most issues that come before Congress. Members of Congress typically sides against the constituents and with their respective parties.

The third function of Congress is the oversight function, which is the responsibility to ensure that the executive branch carries out its actions faithfully. Oversight is carried out largely through the committee system of Congress. Since oversight is so demanding, it is not pursued actively. In cases of executive privilege, officials are allowed to withhold confidential information affecting national security during testimonials.