The Executive Branch
U.S. Chapter 4
The President




You probably know more about the
president than you do about any other
part of the American political system
The general impression many people have is that
the president is very powerful and can do almost
anything
In fact, there are many limits on the president’s
powers (this is the theme of the chapter)
This leads to two “presidential power traps”
 The first is that president’s win office making
promises they don’t have the power to fulfill
 The second is that if the president did have
the power to fulfill these promises the
president would probably be too powerful
The Constitution and the President:
An Invitation to Struggle

The Constitution states that the President has
the “executive power” of the United States

One issue is clear: there is a single person in charge
of the executive branch
But other parts of the constitution related to the
President are not as clear, but traditions have
developed
 The President takes an oath to “execute the office”
 The President appoints officials, some with the
Senate approval and some without



The President can use recess appointments to
appoint officials when Congress is not in session
The President can require the opinion of executive
branch officials (i.e. executive officials work for the
President, not Congress)
The Constitution and the President:
An Invitation to Struggle

Because the Constitution is vague about the definition
of executive power the President often conflicts with
the Courts and Congress about the limits of
Presidential power


Can the president withhold information received from officials?
Who decides when a crisis is severe enough that the president
can take extraordinary action?
Commander-in-Chief


The President is clearly leader of the military
But Congress is given the power to declare war and the
power of the purse to fund (or not fund) wars


President’s have been able to send troops and the public and
Congress usually support the President in the short term
(example Theodore Roosevelt sends out Great White Fleet)
But if the conflict drags on support often declines and Congress
can try to use its powers to stop the war
The Constitution and the President:
An Invitation to Struggle

Negotiating Treaties with foreign nations


According to the constitution the President negotiates
treaties with the “advice and consent” of the Senate
Presidents have been able to ignore the “advice”
requirement, although it is a good idea to keep the
Senate informed




President Washington started the tradition of negotiating
treaties without the day-to-day advice of the Senate
But, President Wilson’s failure to get the League of Nations
treaty passed, showed that it was a good idea to keep the
Senate involved
It requires a 2/3’s vote of the Senate to approve a
treaty
Receiving Ambassadors

Washington developed the tradition that Presidents
determine which countries the US will recognize
The Constitution and the President:
An Invitation to Struggle

Proposing Legislation

Presidents often propose legislation to Congress





Especially in the State of the Union Address
Presidents are more likely to have their proposed
legislation approved when the President’s party
controls both chambers of Congress
Presidents also use veto threats to get bills passed
The more they get passed, the more successful a
President appears
If a President fails to get legislation passed a
President can appear weak
The Constitution and the Presidency

Article II





Article I


Section 1 (term, electoral college, succession, oath)
Section 2 (leads military, bureaucracy, w/senate:
treaties and appointments – including judges; recess
appointments)
Section 3 (state of the union, “take care” clause,
special sessions, receive ambassadors)
Section 4 (impeachment)
Sections 7 (legislation, veto), 2 & 3 (impeachment)
Amendments

12 (clarify electoral college process), 22 (two term
limit), 25 (vacancy)
U.S. President Combines Head of
State and Head of Government
As the head of state the
president is the symbolic leader
of the country
As head of government the
president is the political and
executive leader of the country
In many other countries these two offices are
separated into a constitutional monarch and a
prime minister
The Constitution and the President:
An Invitation to Struggle

Because the constitution is vague about
presidential responsibilities and relations
with the other two branches the power of
the presidency has changed over time


We’ll examine 13 presidents who have had a
major impact on the evolution of the presidency,
mostly by increasing the power of the
presidency
The general trend has been that the power of
the president has increased over time

But the increase has not been constant, some
presidents increased the power of the presidency
and other presidents have stimulated reaction by
Congress and the Courts to limit the power of the
presidency
Evolution of the
Presidency
Evolution of the Presidency

George Washington



Set many of the traditions followed by Presidents today
Used title “Mr. President” to show equality with people
Created the institution of the cabinet

Met with leaders of departments (secretaries) for advice
Acted as chief legislator
 Acted as chief diplomat
 Set tradition of a voluntary two-term limit
Thomas Jefferson
 Put the first party system into effect




Used party to bridge the gap between the executive and
legislative branch
Worked to support candidates who supported his party for
Congress and then when they were elected got them to pass
legislation he supported
Evolution of the Presidency

Andrew Jackson

Expanded influence of parties and average voters




Lost the election of 1824 because he didn’t get a majority of the
electoral college votes, even though got the most popular votes
Worked to convince state legislatures to change how they
allocated electoral college votes to the winner-take-all-rule
Promoted the party convention nomination system to allow
delegates to have influence in picking presidential nominees
Abraham Lincoln
 Faced the greatest crisis in US history: the Civil War



Claimed a number of emergency powers to deal with the crisis
Called state militia into national service, imposed a military draft,
put in place a naval blockade, declared martial law in areas in
rebellion, freed slaves in areas in revolt, put critics in military
prisons
Lincoln did these things without getting approval from Congress
or the Courts (received approval after the fact, something other
presidents have not done when expanding powers)
Evolution of the Presidency

Theodore Roosevelt


Woodrow Wilson


Energetic, young president; added the idea of the stewardship
theory – idea that president is caretaker of all people across nation
Although unsuccessful in getting the League of Nations Treaty
approved by the Senate he set the precedent of US Presidents
becoming international leaders
Franklin Roosevelt
 The model for all modern presidents (post WWII)




First to use media on a regular base to communicate directly to
the people (radio fireside chats)
Famously passed his major legislation, the New Deal to confront
the Great Depression in his first hundred days (other presidents
are now asked “what is your plan for your first 100 days?”),
greatest expansion of government power; strong leader in WWII
Popular enough to break the two-term tradition: elected four times
Changed the way people think about the president, people now
expect president to make their daily lives better
Evolution of the Presidency

John Kennedy

Transformed Presidency into visual media star



Kennedy was relaxed on screen, which made him popular
Since Kennedy presidents who present a likeable image on
screen are likely to be more successful
Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) and Richard Nixon


Both had early successes but ended with dramatic
failures where Congress acted to limit the presidency
LBJ used sympathy from Kennedy assassination to pass
major programs helping the less powerful in America



Passed Civil Rights, Medicare and Medicaid; LBJ’s Great
Society program even more far reaching than FDR’s New Deal
Later failure in Vietnam led to LBJ’s decision not to run again
Nixon had success in re-opening relations with China and
setting up the EPA

Nixon’s involvement in illegal investigation of political opponents
(known as Watergate) led to his resignation from office
Evolution of the Presidency

Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter

Both Ford and Carter presented a more down-to-earth image after
the excesses of LBJ and Nixon, but in the end neither resonated
enough with the people enough to be re-elected

Gerald Ford served out the remainder of Nixon’s term


Jimmy Carter had international successes, especially
negotiating a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel


Facing major economic problems, Ford seemed to do little
But Carter did poorly with economic issues, including the energy
crisis; in the last year of his term the Iranian hostage crisis
made Carter appear particularly ineffectual
Ronald Reagan


Reagan had his scandals (Iran-Contra and the collapse of the S&L
industry), but his sunny disposition and optimism made him popular
(scandals didn’t “stick” to him – called the teflon President)
Reagan also benefited from a re-bound in the economy and exploiting
Americans’ general dislike of government (famously said government “is
not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”)
Informal Powers of
the Presidency
Informal Powers of the Presidency

The Power to Persuade



The formal power to command can be useful in a
crisis, but in normal times the most effective
Presidents are those who use the power to
persuade to can convince Congress, the
bureaucracy and foreign leaders that their selfinterest coincides with what the president wants
The more successful a President is in this way, the
more successes the President is likely to have in the
future
Similarly if the President fails to convince people to
do what she or he wants, the less successful the
President will be
Informal Powers of the Presidency

The Power to Persuade

Presidents also try to persuade public opinion to
put pressure on Congress to carry out the
president’s agenda
 To be successful in leading the public the
President needs to know what areas the
public are concerned about and then be able
to articulate positions the public will support
 Presidents use events such as Inauguration
speeches and the State of the Union address
and Press conferences to try and influence
the public
Informal Powers of the Presidency

The Power to Persuade


By tradition the President is the leader of her or his
political party
To be successful in passing legislation Presidents
need a majority in both chambers of Congress
 Presidents who win election with large
majorities from their party in both chambers are
more likely to get their program passed (FDR,
LBJ; G. W. Bush and Obama in first 2 years)
 Therefore part of Presidents responsibilities are
to help elect members from their party to
Congress by raising money, making speeches,
etc…
Checks on
Presidential Power
Checks on Presidential Power

Congress can:




Override a presidential veto
Ignore legislation or budget priorities put forward by
the President
Use its investigatory power to bring out problems in
the executive branch (e.g. FEMA’s slow response to
Katrina)
The Courts can:

Rule legislation supported by the President
unconstitutional
 The Court initially ruled against much of FDR’s
New Deal legislation, opposed Bush’s claim to be
able to hold terror suspects indefinitely, struck
down the part of Obamacare requiring states to
expand Medicaid
Checks on Presidential Power

The Media



The Media needs access to the President (and other
politicians) to have news to report on
 The media wants to put forward stories that will
catch people’s attention and tends to focus on the
most dramatic, conflict ridden part of a story
The President needs the media to communicate with
the nation
 But the President wants to appear in the best
possible light
Therefore, although the President and the Media are
interdependent they have different goals in how they
want to see a story presented
Checks on Presidential Power

Partisanship and Rivals


The party which does not win the White House
generally spends a great deal of time criticizing
what the President does
If the opposing party controls one or both
chambers in Congress they can:
 Make it difficult for the President to pass
legislation
 Carry out investigations to find out misdeeds
carried out by the executive branch
Checks on Presidential Power

Public Opinion and Interest Groups


When Presidents are first elected they usually tend to
be popular
Over time, events happen that decrease the popularity
of Presidents


Poor response to disasters, such as Katrina; wars drag on
and become expensive and unpopular (Iraq and Afghanistan)
Also, interest groups who will be negatively impacted
by President’s proposals organize to try to get public
opinion to oppose the President
 Classic example was the healthcare industry’s
successful campaign to get public opinion to turn
against Clinton’s healthcare plan in 1994
 Obama learned from this and worked hard to make
sure that major interest groups supported his
healthcare reform program
Bush Approval Rating
Obama Approval Rating gallup
% approve, weekly 1/25/09 to 6/23/13
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Checks on Presidential Power

Limited Tenure – the “Lame Duck” President




The two term limit on Presidents tends to greatly
reduce Presidents power in their second term
Members of the Presidents party know that they
will not be running for election again with this
President and so do not feel as much of an
obligation to support the President
By the last two years of a President’s second
term the primary election for the Presidency
usually overshadows whatever the President
wants to do
For this reason Presidents who cannot run again
are called lame ducks
The Federal
Bureaucracy and the
President
The Executive Office of the President


The President has the job of over-seeing the
federal government, made up of several million
employees
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) is
made up of about 2,000 people organized into
several councils who assist the President in
carrying out this job


Particularly important are OMB (Office of
Management and Budget, sets the budget and “vets”
all agency requests for money) and NSC (National
Security Council, assists with setting security policy)
The White House Office (WHO) that includes the
President’s closest advisors, including the
President’s Chief of Staff
How President’s Organize Their Staff


Presidents choose what works best for them
Chief of Staff Model



Hub and Wheel Model



The Chief of Staff (COS) serves as a gatekeeper,
everyone must go through COS to see the President
Allows President to focus on big picture, but dependent
on quality of COS
President has lines of communication with many different
people
Allows for more unfiltered information, but can be
overwhelmed by trivia
Hybrid Model

Presidents require most people to go through the chief of
staff, but have others with direct access to the President
(Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama)
The Vice President

Most important duty of the vice president is to take
over the presidency in the case of presidential death,
disability, impeachment or resignation

Historically the Vice President carried out minor
political chores

President Carter upgraded the status of the Vice
President
 Carter started the tradition of giving his Vice
President (Walter Mondale) an office in the White
House
 Also gave Mondale access to the same
information the President had so he could take
over the job seamlessly
Today being Vice President is a prestigious job and
often leads to successful runs for the Presidency

The future: Resolving the Paradox of
Presidential Power Traps

To get elected Presidents get caught in the first
power trap of promising more than the power of the
Presidency allows them to deliver

Voters often get caught in the second power trap,
thinking that if the President just had enough power
the problems confronting the nation could be
resolved

The author argues that giving the President more
power would threaten the limited nature of our
Republic
 Therefore he suggests that one possible
resolution to the presidential power traps is to
lower our expectations of what government can
do