PSC 313 Major Course
Themes
1.) Gap between roles/responsibilities/expectations and power to
carry them out; how do presidents resolve this?
a.) informal powers
b.) increase resources (build up institutional presidency)
c.) politicize the bureaucracy
d.) work on increasing legal powers
2.) Fiction of individual president governing vs. reality of institutional
presidency
3.) Does history make the person, or does the person make history?
THE CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION: DESIGNING THE
PRESIDENCY
• Two influences:
• 1.) colonial experience---executives bad
• 2.) Confederation experience---executives weak
• Stages of Convention
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•
•
•
a.)
b.)
c.)
d.)
Virginia Plan
Committee of Detail
Committee on Postponed Matters
Committee of Style
• Much of presidential material was decided
relatively late!
BIG STRUCTURAL ISSUES
• Strong executive faction vs. weak executive faction---in most cases,
the strong exec guys won
• 1.) Unitary vs. plural
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2.) Selection, re-electability, and term length
a.) rejection of popular election
b.) vacillation on legislative selection
c.) Electoral college proposed by CPM
(pre-XIIth Amendment EC)
---perfect compromise or “Rube-Goldberg”-like mishmash?
d.) the complex intertwining of selection method, term length, and
re-electablity
STRUCTURAL ISSUES
CONTINUED
• 3.) Impeachment
What’s an impeachable offense?
4.) Disability/Death/Resignation
• “In case of the removal of the president from office, or his death,
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the
said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President…and such
officer shall act accoridngly, until the Disability be removed, or a
President shall be elected”
5.) Complete Separation from Legislature
--no simultaneous service
--separate ballot, different election cycles
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS IN THE
CONSTITUTION
• Enumerated Powers
• (compare to status quo under Articles)
•
•
•
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1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)
7.)
8.)
9.)
Veto
Commander-in-Chief
“Require the opinions of the principal officers”
Pardon
Makin’ treaties
Appointments
State of the Union (shall? may? must?)
Convene Congress (adjourn in very limited cases?)
“Receive Ambassadors”—narrow and broad interp
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS IN THE
CONSTITUTION
• Implied/”Unenumerated” Powers
• Three theories about implied powers: Taft, TR,
Lincoln
• Supposed sources of implied powers
• A.) Vestment clauses (compare Pres. w. Cong)
• B.) “Take care” clause
• C.) Oath of office
RANDOM CONSTITUTIONAL
STUFF
• 1.) Qualifications for presidency: age,
residency, “natural-born citizenship”
• 2.) Vice-Presidency was a fix for 3
problems
• a.) what to do if president died or was disabled
• b.) give meaning to the second vote for
president in the EC (“consolation prize”)
• c.) difficulties with Senator presiding over
Senate
RANDOM CONSTITUTIONAL
STUFF CONTINUED
• 3.) Presidency Issues in the Ratification
Debate
• a.) The Federalist Papers (proratification)---compares presidency
favorably to British monarch
• B.) Letters of Cato (anti-ratification)--compares presidency unfavorably to
current state governorships
THE 19th CENTURY PRESIDENCY
• Precedents set by George Washington
• 1.) Accessible and popular but not a popular leader in modern
sense
• 2.) Promoted theory of sole presidential removal power
• 3.) Reserved veto for constitutional issues, not policy
disagreements
• 4.) Issues with “advise and consent” clause
• 5.) Unilateral proclamation of neutrality in 1793
• 6.) Unilateral recognition of French Revolutionary govenrment
• 7.) Federalized (and personally commanded) state militias to deal
with internal rebellion
• 8.) First claim of “executive privilege”
• 9.) Avoided direct involvement in legislative process
• 10.) “Government of gentlemen” approach to political appointments
19th CENTURY PRESIDENCY
• 1.) Screwed-up presidential elections of
1796 and 1800, led to 12th Amendment
• 2.) Jefferson (1801-1809): policy and style
changes but no reduction in president’s role
• --party leadership in Congress
• --Louisiana purchase
• --enforcement of Embargo
• 3.) Madison (1809-1817) :
emergence of dominant
Congress, War of 1812, breakdown of first party system
• 4.) Monroe (1817-1825):
policy, established Monroe doctrine
passive on domestic
19th CENTURY PRESIDENCY
• 1824: another screwed-up election
• JACKSON (1829-1837)---a paradoxical
president
• ---Emergence of Second Party System
• ---First use of veto for policy reasons
• ---Asserted presidential control over
bureaucracy
• ---Spoils/patronage system: enhance or reduce
presdiential power?
19th Century Presidency
• JAMES K. POLK (1845-1849)
--’Dark horse’ one-termer: increasingly
regionally factionalized Democrat Party
--Aggressive territorial expansion policy—why?
• --First clearly presidentially-initiated war
--Rare president with extensive legislative
experience
• --First president to attempt centralized budgetary
clearance
• “Young Hickory” – strong presidency within a
smaller Federal government (reduced tariff)
LINCOLN
• “Constitutional dictator” or “cautious
ex-Whig”?
• --April 1861: spending without
congressional appropriations, suspending
habeas corpus (and authorizing military
trials for draft resisters), mail censorship,
naval blockade of Southern ports
• --Ex parte Merryman (1861), Prize Cases
(1863), Ex parte Milligan (1866)
LINCOLN cont’d
• ---Election of 1864
• ---Emancipation Proclamation—based on
Commander-in-Chief power
• Congress strikes back: Andrew Johnson’s
near-removal
th
19
The Relevance of
Century
Presidents for political scientists
• Can today’s presidents learn anything
from pre-modern presidents?
1.) Neustadt: no --- modern presidency is
qualitatively different
2.) Skorownek: yes – American political
history is cyclical
• Presidencies of reconstruction 
articulation  disjunction, interrupted by
presidencies of pre-emption
Progressive/Populist Movements
(and how they changed
presidency)
• Twin evils: business monopoly and state and
local political machines (how related, how alike)
• BTW, why called “machines”?
• Mechanisms of machine control (mostly legal at
the time)
• a.) ballots printed and distributed by party
• b.) SFR method of nomination
c.) patronage/spoils system
• d.) non-competitive contracting
• e.) welfare-like services to poor and immigrants
Progressive/Populist Movements
Major principles of Pop/Prog Movements:
Democratization, Depoliticization, Optimism about
Govt.
Specific reform goals:
1.) government regulation and/or breakup of monopolies
2.) increased govt. health/safety legislation/regulation
3.) Australian ballot (ballot reform)*
4.) Primary elections instead of SFRs for nominations*
5.) Nonpartisan elections (in local govts.), manager/council form of govt.
6.) Competitive bidding for govt. contracts
7.) Civil service (merit) system for awarding govt. jobs*
Garfield assassination key to passing Pendleton Act
8.) Bigger govt. role in social welfare----benefits as “entitlements” rather than
political favors*
Populist/Progressive Movements
• 9.****Idealization of the Executive
• ---executive more democratic, better rep.
of “the people” rather than special
interests, less corruptible
• ---executive more professional:
streamlined, organized, scientific
Populist/Progressive Movements
• Pops and Progs infiltration of the two major parties
produced
• 1.) Teddy Roosevelt (R, 1901-1909)
• --mixed Hamiltonianism and Jeffersonianism
• --Square Deal: Hepburn Act, Expansion of civil service,
Conservation, Pure Food and Drug Act
• --used muckrakers as allies
• 2.) Woodrow Wilson (D, 1913-1921)
• --Party-centered progressivism; idealized contemporary
British parliamentary system
• --Popular president could overcome separation of
powers
• --New Freedom: creation of Federal Researve System,
creation of FTC, Clayton Anti-Trust Act
IRONY OF
POPULIST/PROGESSIVES’
IMPACT ON PRESIDENCY
• Although they intended to empower the
president, some specific reforms weakened the
president politically
• ---Australian ballot led to split ticket voting
• ---Primary elections led to more challenges to
renomination
• ---Merit system reduced control over
bureaucracy
• ---Merit system and competitive bidding reduced
political resources
• LED TO INCREASING “EXPECTATIONS GAP”