The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
Aspect:
What kind of
presidency did the
Founding Fathers
envisage?
What are the formal
powers of the
president?
Details:
“The US presidency is … something of a paradox: power and weakness.
The president has to be both commander-in-chief and ‘bargainer-in-chief’.
He has considerable formal powers, but there are formidable limits on his
use of those powers. To run the federal bureaucracy, mould public
opinion and get on with Congress, the president needs to be an effective
administrator, communicator, persuader, facilitator and leader.”
1. The Founding Fathers created a president who would be both
head of state and head of the government.
2. They created a singular executive. “The executive power shall be
vested in a president of the United States of America” are the
opening words of Article II of the Constitution. It is important to
remember this when considering the president’s cabinet, for it is
not – and cannot be – a decision-making body.
3. They created an indirectly elected president. The president was
to be chosen by the Electors – the great and the good – in an
Electoral College.
4. They created a limited – a checked – president. The Founding
Fathers feared tyranny, and especially they feared tyranny by the
executive branch. As a result, they hedged the president with a
host of checks and balances. “The men who invented the
presidency did not wish to create a ruler. Instead they hoped to
create conditions where leadership might from time to time
flourish. A ruler commands; a leader influences. A ruler wields
power; a leader persuades.” (Cronin and Genovese, 1998)
The powers of the president are his tasks, functions and duties. They are
laid out in Article II of the Constitution.
1. PROPOSE LEGISLATION – Article II of the Constitution states:
“[The president] shall from time to time give to Congress
information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient.” NB – the President can propose legislation at any
time and not just in the State of the Union Address.
2. SUBMIT THE ANNUAL BUDGET – Although just another piece of
legislation, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – part of
the Executive Office of the President (EXOP) – draws up the
budget. There then follows a lengthy bargaining process between
the president and Congress.
3. SIGN LEGISLATION – Once bills have passed through a lengthy and
complicated legislative process in Congress the president has a
number of options at his disposal, but he will usually sign it.
Elaborate bill-signing ceremonies are often held if the president
wants to take some credit for the new law.
4. VETO LEGISLATION – The president also has the option of vetoing
a new law. “The regular veto is a much-used presidential
weapon. Even the threat of it can be an important bargaining
tool.” LINK “The president may have the power of pocket veto at
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
5.
6.
7.
8.
his disposal, but this can be used only at the end of a
congressional session. Pocket vetoes cannot be overridden by
Congress.” LINK
ACT AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE – “The opening 15 words of Article II of
the Constitution grant the president all executive power. Thus,
the president is chief executive – in charge of running the
executive branch of the federal government. … Modern
presidents have needed their own bureaucracy – EXOP – to help
them to coordinate the work of the federal government.
NOMINATE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OFFICIALS – “The president has
the power to nominate hundreds of officials to the executive
branch of government. … The most important of these are the
heads of the 15 executive departments, such as the Treasury,
State and Agriculture. In addition, there are lower-level officials
in all these departments, as well as ambassadors, agency heads
and members of regulatory commissions. The Senate must
confirm all these appointments by a simple majority vote.
Appointments continue to be made throughout the president’s
term of office.”
NOMINATE ALL FEDERAL JUDGES – “Nomination of judges
involves the president in making hundreds of appointments. The
president must fill vacancies not only on the federal Supreme
Court, but also on the federal trial (district) and appeal (circuit)
courts. All judicial appointments are for life and therefore assume
a special importance. They must be confirmed by a simple
majority vote in the Senate.”
ACT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF – This role was particularly
important for presidents in the period of the 1940s to the 1980s.
Since then there was the first Gulf War in 1991 which was
followed by a decade of no significant foreign policy
engagements. “The events of 11 September 2001 changed all
that, however, and George W. Bush found himself thrust into the
role of a wartime president. During his eight year in office, Barack
Obama found himself drawn into foreign crises in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, as well as managing highly sensitive
relationships with Israel, Russia and Cuba.”
“In this area, Congress’s checks are more questionable. The
Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, but that
power has not been used since 1941. The president now asks
Congress to ‘authorise’ his use of troops. Congress passed the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, giving President Johnson the
power “to take all necessary measures” in Vietnam. Congress
passed authorising resolutions in 1991 and 2002 before US troops
were used in Kuwait and Iraq respectively. Congress also has the
‘power of the purse’ with which to check presidential war making,
but this has not always proved effective.”
Finally, whenever the president travels away from the White
House a specially modified briefcase – known as the ‘nuclear
football’ – is carried by a military officer so that the president has
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
immediate access to the nuclear codes should that prove
necessary.
9. NEGOTIATE TREATIES – Significant treaties include Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (Ronald Reagan), the Chemical Weapons Ban
(George H.W. Bush) and a nuclear arms treaty with Russia (Barack
Obama). “The president’s power is checked by the Senate, which
must ratify treaties by a two-thirds majority. During the
twentieth century the Senate rejected seven treaties.” EG – 1920
Treaty of Versailles (Woodrow Wilson); 1999 Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty (Bill Clinton).
10. PARDON – “Presidents possess the power of pardon and use it
with varying degrees of frequency. In 1974, President Ford
pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over all Watergaterelated matters.” EG – George W. Bush 189 people; Barack
Obama 70 people in his first 7 years, but a further 142 in his final
month in office. Trump’s pardons - LINK
11. HEAD OF STATE – “Not only do presidents perform all these
formal constitutional functions, but also they must perform the
role of head of state. This is most clearly seen at times of national
tragedy when the president takes on the role of comforter-inchief, sometimes mourner-in-chief.” EG – George W. Bush
following 11 September 2001; Barack Obama following Hurricane
Sandy October 2012 and the killing of 20 children and 6 adults at
Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut
December 2012.
What are the powers
of the vice
president?
Normally the vice president is elected as part of a joint ticket with the
president. The 25th amendment in 1967 means that should the vice
presidency become vacant, the president can appoint a new vice
president, who must be confirmed by a simple majority vote of both
houses of Congress.
ONLY EGS – 1973 Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned over a charge of
tax evasion and was replaced by Gerald Ford (confirmed by 92-3 and 38755 in the Senate and the House of Representatives); Gerald Ford then
replaced Richard Nixon as president, so Nelson Rockefeller was appointed
Vice President (confirmed by 90-7 and 287-128 in the two houses of
Congress)
The Constitution originally gave four powers to the vice president:
1. He is the presiding officer of the Senate, but this is a function that
the vice president rarely performs.
2. The vice president is granted the power to break a tie in the
Senate. Indeed, it is only to perform this function that a vice
president will usually attend the chamber. From January 1993 to
January 2017 vice presidents were called upon to break tied votes
on 12 occasions. As of 25 June 2019, Vice President Pence at the
time of writing had already done this 13 times. LINK
3. The vice president is given the task of counting and then
announcing the result of the Electoral College votes.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
4. The vice president becomes president upon the death,
resignation of removal of the president from office. This has
occurred on nine occasions: four times following the assassination
of the president; four times following the natural death of the
president; and once following the resignation of the president
(President Nixon in August 1974)
More recently the vice president has acquired a fifth power: to become
acting president if the president is declared, or declares himself, disabled.
This is another provision of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. At the time of
writing, it has been used 3 times. LINK The vice president has been a
significant player in the White House since the presidency of Dwight
Eisenhower (1953-61).
What is the cabinet?
Initially the cabinet was composed of State, War and Treasury. Now there
are 15 members and it is at the president’s discretion to award cabinet
rank to other administration officials. EG – Jan. 2012 President Obama
elevated Karen Mills (Small Business Administration) to cabinet status.
The cabinet is not mentioned in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers
created a singular executive – no councils or cabinets. However, the
Constitution does state in Article II that the president: “may require the
opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive
departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective
offices.”
Four words or phrases in this brief extract indicate precisely what the
president can require from the heads of the executive departments:
1. ‘may’ – This means that whatever the Constitution prescribes in
this section is voluntary, not obligatory. Constitutions are usually
about ‘shall’ not ‘may’.
2. ‘opinions’ – This is a low-level word, more submissive than
‘decisions’ or ‘recommendations’.
3. ‘in writing’ – no meeting is envisaged.
4. ‘upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices’
– in other words each member can only comment on their own
department. This is not the equivalent to a UK cabinet meeting.
The cabinet meeting was started by President Washington and has been
continued by every president since. Bennett comments “it is used
because it is used.”
Bennett comments that it is also important to distinguish between the
importance of individual cabinet members and the relative lack of
importance attached to cabinet meetings.
How is it appointed?
Two important differences from the UK system are that there isn’t a
shadow cabinet waiting to take office and that any member of the cabinet
cannot be a member of the legislature.
There are four major pools of recruitment:
1. CONGRESS – “asking serving members of Congress to give up their
seats to join the cabinet – where both prestige and job security
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
are often in short supply – is usually a hard sell.” Retiring or
former members of Congress are easier to recruit. NB – Trump
persuaded three incumbent members of Congress to join his
cabinet in 2017 Jeff Sessions, Tom Price and Ryan Zinke. LINK
2. SERVING OR FORMER STATE GOVERNORS – these people have
executive experience and so are usually better suited to running a
large federal bureaucracy. Sonny Perdue (Agriculture) and Rick
Perry (Energy) represent this group in Trump’s cabinet.
3. BIG CITY MAYORS – they also have executive experience. Obama
had Anthony Foxx (Transportation) and Julian Castro (Housing and
Urban Development).
4. ACADEMIA – Obama has two Physics professors, one after the
other, as Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and then Ernest Moniz.
“What the president is really looking for in cabinet officers is policy
specialists”. EG – for Trump, Kevin McAleenan (Homeland Security),
Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) and William Barr (Justice).
All the cabinet appointments are subject to confirmation by a simple
majority vote in the Senate. It is highly unusual for the Senate to reject
the president’s nominees. EG – February 2017 Vice President Mike Pence
had to cast a 51st vote in order to break a 50-50 tie when the Senate voted
to confirm Betsy DeVos as secretary of education – two Republicans voted
with the Democrats and two independents. This is the first time that this
has happened. “A week later Trump’s nominee to be secretary of labour,
Andrew Puzder, withdrew his name from consideration after it became
clear that he lacked the necessary votes to be confirmed.” LINK
The president will also seek to ensure that his cabinet is balanced in terms
of GENDER (increased numbers of women under Bush (3) and Obama (4),
but not Trump (2)), RACE (again this increased under Bush but it has fallen
back under Trump, REGION (“by appointing cabinet members from
different regions of the country, presidents can reinforce a picture that
they intend to govern for the whole country”), AGE (average cabinet ages
Bush 58, Obama 55, Trump 63), IDEOLOGY (included all parts of the party:
liberal Democrats, conservative Democrats and New Democrats;
conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and Tea Party
Republicans).
How is it used?
“The frequency of cabinet meetings varies from one president to
another.” George W. Bush (2001-2008) had an average of 6 meetings per
year, Barack Obama (2009-2016) had 3.5 on average each year.
THE FUNCTIONS OF CABINET MEETINGS FOR THE PRESIDENT:
1. TEAM SPIRIT – this is important in the first year. Remember there
has not been a shadow cabinet so many of the cabinet officers
will be complete strangers to each other. The meetings can help
to weld them into his team to move forward his agenda.
2. COLLEGIALITY – This has been important since Nixon’s presidency.
Cabinet meetings offer a media photo opportunity and this sends
the signal that the president is running an open administration.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Therefore, it is a public relations exercise and the president will
make some comments that will receive media coverage.
EXCHANGING INFORMATION – Cabinet meetings provide
opportunities for both information giving and information
gathering. It is an efficient method by which the president keeps
in touch with what is going on in the vast federal bureaucracy.
POLICY DEBATE – Some presidents have liked to use cabinet
meetings as a forum to debate policy. Bennett cites both Reagan
and George H.W. Bush as examples of this.
PRESENTING ‘BIG PICTURE ITEMS’ – These include the budget, upcoming elections, major legislative initiatives or foreign trips. EG
– 30 September 2013 President Obama discussed the likely
implications of the upcoming partial shutdown of the federal
government.
MONITORING CONGRESS – Some presidents have used cabinet
meetings to check up on legislation going through Congress in
which they have a particular interest. EG – 24 September 2002
President George W. Bush pushed for congressional action on:
authorisation for military action in Iraq; the passage of the
Homeland Security Bill; and the budget.
PROMPTING ACTION – Presidents can use cabinet meetings to
goad cabinet members into action. EG – July 2014 President
Obama challenged Hagel (Defense) for not moving quickly enough
in releasing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
PERSONAL CONTACT – This is particularly important for ‘secondtier’ cabinet officers who the president is unlikely to see outside
of cabinet meetings.
THE FUNCTIONS OF CABINET MEETINGS FOR CABINET OFFICERS:
1. GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER – it is likely that initially the
cabinet members will not know each other.
2. RESOLVING DISPUTES – Cabinet meetings can be used to resolve
interdepartmental disputes.
3. SPEAKING TO CABINET COLLEAGUES – They provide a useful
opportunity to speak with other cabinet officers, and as there are
precious few other opportunities to run into one’s cabinet
colleagues – unlike in a parliamentary system – these can be
valuable occasions.
4. SPEAKING TO THE PRESIDENT – It may even be possible to catch
the president after the meeting, although the Cabinet Secretary
will be on hand to ensure that no cabinet officer takes advantage
of the President with what might appear to be an innocent, offthe-cuff request.
5. INCREASED STATUS FOR CABINET OFFICERS – attendance at
cabinet meetings gives cabinet officers increased standing back at
their departments. They know what the president wants today.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
How is it important?
5 ARGUMENTS FOR IMPORTANCE:
1. It contains some of the most important people in the executive
branch (EG – secretary of state and secretary of defense)
2. All the heads of the 15 executive departments are automatically
members.
3. The president always chairs the meetings.
4. Cabinet meetings can fulfil a number of important functions, both
for the president and for cabinet officers.
5. Some presidents hold frequent meetings (EG – Reagan)
5 ARGUMENTS FOR IT NOT BEING IMPORTANT:
1. Article II of the Constitution vests ‘all executive power’ in the
president.
2. There is no doctrine of collective responsibility.
3. The members are neither the president’s equals nor his political
rivals.
4. The president often views members of his cabinet with some
suspicion because of their divided loyalties.
5. EXOP is the main source of advice-giving for the president.
What role is played
by the Executive
Office of the
President?
EXOP is the umbrella term for the top staff agencies in the White House
that assist the president in carrying out the major responsibilities of
office. These agencies provide help, advice, coordination and
administrative support for the president.
In 1939 the Brownlow Committee reported to President F. D. Roosevelt
that “the president needs help”. The three reasons were:
1. There had been a huge increase in the size and scale of the
federal government, caused mainly by the westward expansion
and industrialisation of the nineteenth century. By 1903 5 new
departments (Interior, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor)
had been added to the original 3 (State, War and Treasury).
2. The New Deal programme that was created to respond to the
great depression was “a whole raft of federal government
schemes to promote employment, agriculture, industrial
expansion and a huge programme of schools, roads, hydroelectric
schemes and the like.”
3. “The USA was about to become a major player on the stage of
world politics. This added considerably to the president’s role as
commander-in-chief. The presidents of the second half of the last
century had to spend much of their time dealing with the
consequences of the Cold War – in southeast Asia, eastern Europe
and Central America.” LINK
The most important offices of EXOP are:
THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE – this contains the president’s most trusted
and closest aides and advisers. It is composed of over 30 offices including
the Office of Cabinet Affairs and the Office of Legislative Affairs. “Their
principal function is to provide advice and administrative support for the
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
president on a daily basis.” “It acts as liaison between the White House
and the vast federal bureaucracy. … The Office of Legislative Affairs is” the
branch of the White House with sole responsibility for liaising with
Congress.
The White House Office is also responsible for the president’s daily
schedule, for the day-to-day running of the White House and for
personnel management. “They ensure that decisions are arrived at in an
orderly fashion – that all relevant options, pros and cons, have been
presented to the president for him to make his decision. The Brownlow
report suggested that they would need ‘a passion for anonymity’.
THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF - LINK “The best model for chief of
staff is someone who always seeks the president’s best interests rather
than his own, and who protects the president from political harm.” “It is
the hottest seat in town and its occupant is the orchestrator of
presidential paper flow, the ‘honest broker’ of ideas and opinions, the
fearsome disciplinarian of wayward staffers, the president’s trusted
adviser and sounding board, the White House’s apologist and
occasionally, the president’s fall guy” (taken from the Washington Post,
May 1993)
President Obama was served by four different chiefs of staff in his first
term, but during his second term Denis McDonough served throughout.
His “12 years on Capitol Hill gave him a helpful insight into the workings
and personnel of Congress.” He was also criticised for being a ‘control
freak’ and in so being he deprived Obama “of a much-needed range of
views.”
THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET (OMB) – It has three
principal functions:
1. To advise the president on the allocation of federal funds in the
annual budget;
2. To oversee the spending of all federal departments and agencies;
3. To act as a kind of clearing house for all legislative and regulatory
initiatives coming from the executive branch.
“The last function means that all proposed legislation and regulations
coming from the executive branch must go through the OMB so that they
can be analysed both for their budgetary implications and for their
compatibility with the president’s overall policy programme.”
The OMB director heads the OMB and is “just about the only EXOP post
that requires Senate confirmation. The job of OMB director is both to run
the Office and to give advice and speak on behalf of the president on
budgetary matters.”
The OMB has a staff of about 500 people and the budget process takes
roughly two years. The OMB is involved throughout the process. LINK
THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
It was established in 1947 to help the president to co-ordinate foreign,
security and defence policy. Headed by the national security adviser
(NSA) the NSC co-ordinates information coming in from the State
Department, the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the American ambassadors around the
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
world. “It would liaise with the relevant congressional committees, too.
Like the White House Staff, the NSC was designed to operate as an
‘honest broker’, a ‘facilitator’, presenting carefully argued options for
presidential decision making.”
Bennett comments that President Nixon moved away from this approach
by “appointing Henry Kissinger as his national security adviser to act as a
roving foreign-policy maker”, but Clinton, Bush, and Obama have
returned the NSC to its ‘honest broker’ role.
EXOP – CABINET RIVALRIES
“Presidents must guard against the development of unhealthy rivalries
and distrust between those who work in the EXOP, on the one hand, and
the heads of the executive departments – the cabinet – on the other.
Such rivalries can inflict serious wounds on a presidency, as presidents
Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter discovered.”
PHYSICAL DISTANCE – The official offices of both the secretary of Defense
and State are 10 minutes or more away from the Oval Office. In contrast
to this, “those who work in the EXOP have the key advantage of
proximity.” “Never underestimate the power of proximity” said Daniel
Patrick Moynihan who served in the White House under Richard Nixon.
Donald Rumsfeld made a similar observation about Condoleezza Rice,
who was national security adviser in George W. Bush’s first
administration: “Her personal access to and affinity for President Bush
gave Rice substantial influence as a national security adviser and an
unusually strong voice in matters under the purview of the NSC.”
DIVIDED LOYALTIES – “Although they are appointed by the president …
they have a loyalty to Congress, whose votes decide their departmental
budgets and whose committees can call them to account in person. They
have a loyalty to their own departmental bureaucracy and to interest
groups with which their department has close links.”
In his recent book on the presidency of George W. Bush, Jean Edward
Smith (2016) commented that “Bush relied on White House staff rather
than his cabinet” EG – in 2001 Bush told Putin to “Contact [Condoleezza]
Rice if there is a problem” – not Colin Powell at the State Department.
POLICY ‘CZARS’ – During his first term “Obama’s extensive use of White
House policy ‘czars’ signalled that policy making was going to take place at
the White House and not in the 15 executive departments scattered
around downtown Washington.” EG – three first term policy czars were:
Carol Browner (energy and climate), Lawrence Summers (economic) and
Nancy DeParle (health).
“The real problem with White House czars (and sometimes even the
national security adviser) is that they confuse the chain of command and
leave open the question of who is in charge of administration policy.
Czars … do not control budgets or appointments, and they cannot order
cabinet officers to do their bidding. The other problem with czars is that
cabinet officers often resent the dilution of their policy-advising authority.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
So the biggest problem is who is in charge of a given policy area. Who has
the lead in developing policy alternatives for the president’s
consideration?” (James Pfiffner, 2011)
How can the
president get his
way with Congress?
‘THE POWER TO PERSUADE’ (Richard Neustadt)
Bennett cites an example from 2011 when President Obama wanted to
show his support for the American Jobs Act that was before Congress at
this time. Obama asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives
(John Boehner, Republican) to organise a primetime televised speech for
the 7 September. Boehner refused (the Speaker has never before refused
a presidential request like this) and offered the 8 September instead. The
reason was that the Republican presidential candidates had a TV debate
scheduled for the 7 Sept and the NFL American football season began on
the 8 Sept.
WHY PERSUASION?
“The problem is that almost every power that the president possesses is
checked by Congress.” Between 1993 and 2018 “the president and both
houses of Congress were controlled by the same party for only 10.5 of
those 26 years.” “What the Constitution separates, the political parties
do not combine.” (Neustadt, 1990)
“The president can do very little without the agreement of Congress.
There is an intricate systems of checks and balances devised by the
Founding Fathers, who wanted it to be difficult for the president to get his
way in Congress.”
“Conflict and cooperation between Congress and the president are not
merely the result of whim or wilfulness at one end or the other of
Pennsylvania Avenue.” (Nelson Polsby, 1976)
Professor S.E. Finer (1970) has likened the president and Congress to ‘two
halves of a bank note, each useless without the other.’
PRESIDENTIAL PERSUASION THROUGH PEOPLE
The president cannot do this himself and so must work through people.
1. The Vice President – “All of the last seven vice presidents –
covering more than 40 years from Walter Mondale to Mike Pence
– have been former members of Congress.” EG – President
Obama VP was Joe Biden, who has served in the Senate for 36
years and “In his time in Congress, Biden has campaigned for
many Democratic congressmen and senators who almost owed
their political life to him.” “It also helps that as president of the
Senate, the vice president has a foothold in Congress. He has an
office there, where he can meet with members of both houses.”
2. Members of the Office of Legislative Affairs – “There are
members of the White House Office who work as full-time
lobbyists for the president on Capitol Hill. They meet with
members of Congress as well as with senior members of their
staff.” They seek to build-up good relationships with the people
that they work with.
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Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
3. Cabinet officers – “The cabinet officers can be deployed by the
White House to talk with members of Congress in their own policy
areas.” EG – 2001 Rod Paige (George W. Bush’s Education
Secretary) and 2002 Colin Powell (George W. Bush’s Secretary of
State) were sent to Congress to sell an education reform package
and the invasion of Iraq respectively.
4. Party leadership in Congress – “the president can work through
the party leadership in Congress – the House Speaker; the
majority and minority leaders of both houses; the party whips;
the committee chairs and ranking minority members.”
PRESIDENTIAL PERSUASION THROUGH PERKS
1. The president might offer help with legislation that benefits that
member’s state or district.
2. He might offer to look more favourably on a judicial or executive
branch appointment of interest to the member.
3. The president might invite members of Congress for an Oval
Office meeting – either individually or in a small group.
4. The president might even go to Capitol Hill to meet with a
selected group of members of Congress there.
5. If they are in the same party, the president might offer to
campaign for them in the next election.
6. If all else fails, the president might go on national television to
appeal over the heads of Congress directly to the people –
“putting Congress’s feet to the fire” (President Johnson)
7. Small courtesies from the White House – an invitation to a billsigning, dinner with the president in the White House, a trip on
Air Force One.
THE RESULTS OF PRESIDENTIAL PERSUASION
“The president’s success rate is measured each year in what is called the
presidential support score. This annual statistic measures how often the
president won in recorded votes in the House and Senate on which he
took a clear position, expressed as a percentage of the whole. Its three
main limitations are:
1. The score does not measure the importance of votes. The
president might win trivial votes while losing important ones.
2. Presidents can avoid low scores by simply not taking positions on
votes they expect to lose.
3. The score does not count bills that fail to come to a vote on the
floor of either house. EG – President Clinton’s high score of 86.4
% in 1994 does not account for the failure of his Healthcare
Reform Bill – his flagship policy – to even reach the floor of either
house.
Changes in Congress – and more widely in the US political system – make
the president’s job of trying to build support for legislation more difficult
than was the case in the 1950s and 1960s. There are 3 possible reasons:
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Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
1. Members of Congress are now more aware of constituents’
wishes – due to C-SPAN and e-mail LINK – and therefore are
perhaps less willing to merely go along with what the president
wants.
2. Changes in the methods for selecting presidential candidates have
resulted in Washington outsiders becoming presidents –
Governors Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and most
notably Donald Trump. They know much less about the workings
of Congress than did presidents who had worked in Congress –
Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford – and do not have the
personal ties to members of Congress that presidents such as
Truman and Johnson enjoyed. Even Obama had served less than
4 years in Congress before being elected president.
3. MOST IMPORTANT – “Not only is it less likely these days that the
president and a majority of both houses of Congress will be of the
same party, but increased levels of partisanship have made it
much more difficult for a president to gain the support of
members of the opposition in Congress.
DIRECT AUTHORITY – “actions that require no congressional approval and
yet can achieve some of the political goals that presidents seek.”
1. EXECUTIVE ORDERS – “have the effect of law and they depend on
some grant of authority in the Constitution. But they are what we
would call an ‘extra-constitutional power’ – a power outside of
the Constitution. They do not require congressional approval.
They are often drafted in the departments and agencies of the
federal government and sometimes by the OMB. In either case,
the OMB has developed the role of ‘executive order clearance’ –
screening them to ensure that they fit with the president’s policy
interests and with existing law.” EG – President Kennedy used
Executive Order 10925 to require federal contractors to take
‘affirmative action’ to ensure equal treatment of employees and
job applicants. EG – whether or not family planning that receive
federal funds can offer their clients information about abortion
options. Reagan (1984) removed this; Clinton (1993) reinstated
this; G. W. Bush (2001) removed it again; Obama (2009)
reinstated it again.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA – Nov. 2014 he
issued the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful
Permanent Residents (DAPA) to allow certain illegal immigrants to
be granted an indefinite delay in their deportation from the
United States. Dec. 2014 26 Republican State Governors
challenged the President’s action in federal court, calling it ‘one of
the largest changes in immigration policy in our nation’s history’.
Nov. 2015 the federal appeals court found that President Obama
did not have such powers, and that his action breached the clause
of Article II of the Constitution that requires the president to ‘take
care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ In 2016, the Supreme
Court reviewed the decision and reached a 4-4 tied decision.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
EXECUTIVE ORDERS UNDER TRUMP
“Trump signed 12 executive orders in his first week, including
those to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (although the Senate never ratified it anyway) and a
freeze on federal government hiring (though there were
exceptions).
The most significant executive order placed a four month ban on
refugees and a three month ban on citizens from 7 predominantly
Muslim countries entering the USA. Trump then sacked Acting
Attorney General Sally Yates “after she ordered staff at the
Department of Justice not to defend the order in court. The
federal courts then placed a temporary restraining order on the
President’s order.” LINK LINK
2) SIGNING STATEMENTS
This is another way in which presidents have expanded their
direct authority. Jimmy Carter (225), George H.W. Bush (228) and
Bill Clinton (381) all made great use of these. More recently,
George W. Bush and Barack Obama made less use of them, but
interestingly George W. Bush used 81% of signing statements to
raise a constitutional question about the bill, whereas Bill Clinton
only did this 19% of times.
There is an on-going debate about whether or not it is legitimate
for a President to sign a bill into law but then state that part of
the new law will not be enforced because the President believes
that it violates the constitution. For the critics, this approach is
very similar to the ‘LINE-ITEM VETO’ that Congress granted to the
President in 1996, but the Supreme Court declared
unconstitutional in 1998.
REMINDER – the Constitution allows the president to veto, pocket
veto or sign. Not veto only parts of the new law.
It is agreed that signing statements add significantly to the
president’s power over legislation. Congress doesn’t like the
practice because signing statements often block the enforcement
of a law that Congress has duly passed and so is equivalent to an
unconstitutional line-item veto. “While the Supreme Court has
allowed signing statements to clarify unclear legislation, it has
never given a clear ruling on the constitutional standing of such
documents.”
3) RECESS APPOINTMENTS
The power to appoint high-level politically appointed positions in
the federal government is shared by the president and Congress.
BUT the president is able to make a temporary appointment (a
recess appointment) if the Senate is in recess. The appointment
expires at the end of the following session of the Senate.
“Like executive orders, recess appointments flourished in the new
era of partisanship in Washington”. In response, the Senate
began to hold ‘pro forma sessions’ (often with just one senator
present) to try to stop recess appointments.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
An important Supreme Court ruling was reached in 2014 in
National Labor Relations Board v Noel Canning. This happen
because President Obama made 3 recess appointments to the
NLRB and the next month the NLRB ruled against the Noel
Canning Corporation. The Noel Group claimed that “as a majority
of the NLRB members were recess appointees when the Senate
had not been in recess at all, the Board’s ruling had no legal
standing; and the Supreme Court ruled that the President had
exceeded his powers in making the recess appointments to the
NLRB. LINK
4) EXECUTIVE AGREEMENTS
These “are yet another type of direct authority that presidents
can use. An executive agreement is an agreement reached
between the president and a foreign nation on matters that do
not require formal treaties.” Since the presidency of F. D.
Roosevelt “Subsequent presidents have signed an average of
some 200 executive agreements per year, with a peak of over 300
per year under Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George W.
Bush’s second term. They cover such matters as basing American
troops on foreign soil and resolving claims made by citizens of one
country against the government of another. They could be
concerned with regulating international trade or anti-terrorism
policies.”
“Commentators and academics have generally contended that
presidents use executive agreements, as political devices to
circumvent the Senate because executive agreements, unlike
treaties, do not require Senate ratification.” EG – in 1994
President Bill Clinton signed an agreement with North Korea, but
a number of Republican senators, including John McCain, created
a furore because a deal of its magnitude should have been put
before Congress. Also in 1994, Clinton secured the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by an executive
agreement. “Here is yet another example of the Constitution
inviting a struggle for power between the president and
Congress.”
What are the
theories of
presidential power?
The Founding Fathers never intended for the presidency to be powerful.
In 1960 Richard Neustadt said that it had “the power to persuade”. In the
2000s he commented: “Weakness is still what I see – weakness in the
sense of a great gap between what is expected of a man (or, some day, a
woman) and assured capacity to carry through.”
Bennett then remarks that due to “today’s era of partisanship in
Washington … one might question the usefulness of any persuasive skills
the president may have.”
The presidency has evolved significantly since the time of George
Washington. Presidential scholars have written about the ‘modern
presidency’ or the ‘institutionalised presidency’. This process began
under the presidency of F.D. Roosevelt, with the creation of the EXOP.
This change made Congress seem to become subservient to the president.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
A trend that continued under Truman, Kennedy and Johnson (all
Democrats) and Nixon (Republican).
THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY – a presidency characterised by the misuse of
presidential powers, especially excessive secrecy – especially in foreign
policy – and high-handedness in dealing with Congress.
Arthur Schlesinger published ‘The Imperial Presidency’ in 1973 in which
he argued that “the imperial presidency was the creation of foreign
policy.” By 1986 Schlesinger had recanted his thesis to some extent. It
started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, which allowed FDR to break free
from the conventional ties of Congress:
 1950 following North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, Truman
immediately sent US troops without approval from Congress.
 1958 President Eisenhower sent 14,000 troops to Lebanon.
 1961 President Kennedy launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs
invasion without congressional authorisation.
 1962 Congress played no role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
 1964 Congress agreed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave
President Johnson virtually a blank cheque.
 1970 President Nixon bombed Cambodia without even the
knowledge, let alone the authorisation, of Congress.
Under Nixon, to clamp down on anti-Vietnam War protests and the way
that business was organised and controlled seemed to add weight to this
line of argument. “The Watergate affair, which broke in 1972 and forced
Nixon to resign in August 1974, added fuel to the fire. Watergate was
about illegal bugging and break-ins, the payment of hush money, secrecy,
impoundment of congressional funds and obstruction of justice – all at
the very highest levels of the Nixon administration.”
Bennett cites presidential scholar David Mervin (1990) as typical of a
number who became sceptical of the imperial president thesis:
“The word ‘imperial’ summons up images of the president as an emperor,
a supreme sovereign authority, a master of all he surveys. Roosevelt, at
the beginning of the 1930s, and at the height of World War II, may have
briefly approached such a position of pre-eminence, but none of his
successors has come close to such a situation.”
THE IMPERILLED PRESIDENCY
This term was coined by Gerald Ford at the end of the 1970s as a result of
Congress limiting the presidency powers by:
The Case Act (1972) which forced presidents to inform Congress of all
executive agreements made with foreign states;
The War Powers Act (1973) which attempted to limit presidents’ use of
troops unless Congress declared war or gave ‘specific statutory
authorisation’.
THE POST-IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
President Reagan restored kudos to the presidency by introducing
domestic reforms that allowed the economy to boom and by pursuing a
foreign policy that labelled the USSR as ‘the evil empire’ and applied
pressure that contributed to its eventual collapse.
President George H.W. Bush followed a successful foreign policy but fell
due to the economic recession of the early 1990s.
President Bill Clinton undermined the integrity of the presidency with the
Monica Lewinsky affair, but did serve two full terms (the first Democrat to
do this since FDR)
President George W. Bush came to power controversially due to the
Supreme Court’s ruling about vote counting in Florida. After initial
success in his foreign policy, the war became unpopular and domestic
policy was unsuccessful in terms of the economy and responding to
Hurricane Katrina.
President Obama was initially successful with a massive economic
stimulus and by significantly expanding the role played by the state in
health care, but once the House (2010) and the Senate (2014) fell to
Republican control, Obama found that he was severely limited in what he
could achieve.
Bennett’s conclusion “What we can say is that presidential power is
limited – the Founding Fathers intended it to be so. All this makes being a
successful and effective president exceedingly difficult.”
What is the
president’s role in
foreign policy?
In times of crisis, it is the president and not Congress who is in charge of
foreign policy.
When it comes to non-crisis foreign policy making it is less clear. The
Constitution is ‘an invitation to struggle for the privilege of directing
American foreign policy.’ (Prof. Corwin) ‘It gives powers over foreign
policy to both branches of government and a number of the constitutional
provisions are somewhat vague.’
The Constitution makes the president Commander-in-Chief and allows
her/him to negotiate treaties. These powers are checked by Congress’s
powers to declare war (it hasn’t done this since 1941) and to control the
purse strings (a power that was of questionable use once George W. Bush
had committed troops to Iraq).
A number of cabinet appointments relate to foreign policy and the
president also appoints ambassadors to other nation states. All of these
appointments, apart from the national security adviser, are subject to
Senate confirmation.
The president can set the tone of foreign policy through either his
inaugural address or the State of the Union address. LINK LINK
Following on from 9/11 the BUSH DOCTRINE became established which
argued that America’s ‘primacy’ (having defeated both Nazism and
Communism) enabled the nation to wage ‘pre-emptive war’. The rise of
terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the nations that either harboured
or sponsored them ‘changed the calculus of world politics to such an
extent that conventional instruments of coercive foreign policy no longer
applied.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
PRESIDENT OBAMA promised ‘soft power’ LINK, but this is controversial
given that:
Guantanamo Bay detention camp was not closed; in 2011 Obama signed a
4 year extension to the Patriot Act; and significantly increased the use of
drone attacks.
In contrast, and despite the powers that the Constitution gives to
Congress, “When it comes to matters of war and peace, Congress now
occupies a position roughly analogous to that of a student council in
university governance. It may be important for the administration to
show pro forma respect and deference to it – but there can no longer be
any doubt about where the real authority resides.” (Gene Healy: 2008)
EG – January 2007, the Democrats reclaimed both houses of Congress and
sought to use ‘the power of the purse’ to end the ‘disastrous war’ in Iraq,
but President Bush vetoed the bill and the Democrats did not have the
number of votes required to override the veto.
What limits exist on
presidential power?
“the presidency is not a powerful office.” (James Pfiffner)
“Opportunities to check power abound; opportunities to exercise power
are limited.” (Thomas Cronin)
THE POWERS OF CONGRESS:
 Amend, delay or reject the president’s legislative proposals;
 Override the president’s veto;
 Amend his budgetary requests through the power of the purse;
 Check his commander-in-chief, through the power of the purse as
well as through the power to declare war;
 Refuse to ratify treaties negotiated by the president (Senate
only);
 Reject nominations made by the president (Senate only);
 Investigate the president’s actions and policies;
 Impeach and try the president with possible removal from office if
found guilty.
THE POWERS OF THE SUPREME COURT, recent examples:
 Declaring President Nixon’s actions in refusing to release the socalled White House tapes to be unconstitutional LINK
 Declaring President Clinton’s claim for immunity from prosecution
by Paula Jones to be unconstitutional (1997)
 Declaring the military commissions set up by President George W.
Bush to try Guantanamo Bay detainees to be unconstitutional
(2006)
 Declaring President Obama’s use of recess appointments to be
unconstitutional (2014)
 Declaring President Obama’s use of an executive order to
implement his immigration reform programme to be
unconstitutional (2016)
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett

District and appeal courts in the federal system challenging
President Trump’s ‘travel ban’ which meant that the executive
order was declared inoperative by the courts.
OTHER CHECKS:
 Interest groups – eg the National Rifle Association challenged
President Obama’s attempt to mobilise public opinion behind
tighter gun control.
 24/7 media news cycle.
 The size of the federal bureaucracy – c. 3 million civil servants.
 State governments and governors who have to implement federal
policy.
What factors affect
presidential success?
ELECTORAL MANDATE
1984 – President Reagan won re-election with 59% of the vote and victory
in 49 states.
1992 – Bill Clinton won election with only 43% of the vote.
In the ‘hyper-partisanship’ current era, no president has won a landslide
since Reagan in 1984.
PUBLIC APPROVAL
This varies over time and affects the president’s ability to get things done:
George W. Bush 90% (October 2001); not more than 40% (2006-2007);
25% (2008).
‘the Marmite presidency’ Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump.
FIRST/SECOND TERM
An unintended consequence of the Twenty-second amendment is that
presidents quickly become lame ducks in their second terms, and
consequently seek to pass their top policy priorities early in their first
term while their approval rating is still high. EG: Obama was sworn in
during January 2009 and so-called Obamacare (the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act) was signed into law on 23 March 2010.
UNIFIED/DIVIDED GOVERNMENT
Unified government is the term used to describe the situation when both
houses of Congress are controlled by the president’s party. “For
presidents Bill Clinton to Barack Obama, the average presidential support
score (measures how often the president won in recorded votes) for years
of unified government was 83% while the average score for years of
divided government was just 53%.”
CRISES
‘a rally-round-the-flag-effect’ which means that Americans support the
Commander-in-Chief in times of crisis. EG – George W. Bush had a 51%
approval rating on 7 September 2001; two weeks later it was 90%, it
stayed above 80% for six months, and above 70% for a further 4 months.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF PARTISANSHIP
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
Both Bush and Obama ‘rather than seeking compromise with their
opponents by bringing them into an inclusive coalition and supporting
legislation broadly acceptable to the electorate, they sought, as Edwards
put it, “to defeat the opposition, creating winners and losers in a zerosum game”.’ This continued in the 2016 presidential election which was
focused on an effort to mobilise their own party’s base rather than
convince undecided and swing voters.
How do the offices
of the US president
and the UK prime
minister compare?
US President:
 The office was created by a war of independence and a
constitutional convention some years later.
 George Washington would recognise Trump as president.
 All executive power in the USA is vested in the president.
 The president is elected by the people, through an electoral
college, and serve for a maximum of eight years.
 The president gains the title of party leader but it means little in
practice.
 The president is entirely separate from the legislature.
 The president’s cabinet is no more than an optional advisory
group and has no formal decision-making power.
UK Prime Minister:
 The office has evolved over many centuries. EG – the title was
first recorded, posthumously, to Sir Robert Walpole (First Lord of
the Treasury 1721 to 1742).
 The office of prime minister would be unrecognisable to Walpole.
 Executive power is divided between the monarch, the prime
minister and the cabinet.
 The prime minister is not directly elected to the office and so
there is no limit to the amount of time that she/he might serve.
 The prime minister gains office by being the leader of the largest
party in the House of Commons and is de facto (in fact whether
right or not) leader of the house.
 The prime minister and cabinet together form a plural executive
with the PM described as ‘first among equals’ – “Primus inter
pares (Ancient Greek: Πρῶτος μεταξὺ ἴσων, prōtos metaxỳ ísōn) is
a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as
an honorary title for those who are formally equal to other
members of their group but are accorded unofficial respect,
traditionally owing to their seniority in office.” (Wikipedia,
9/9/2018)
“the prime minister is usually pictured working in the cabinet room – a
room that speaks as much about collegiality as the Oval Office does about
individuality.”
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
US president and UK prime minister: comparing roles and powers
US President
Elected as president
Chief executive and head of state
Legislation: initiating and veto
powers
Appoints cabinet but subject to
Senate confirmation
Commander-in-chief of the Armed
Forces, but only Congress can
declare war
Has vice president
Has (large) Executive Office of the
President
Has a variety of means to pursue
policy unilaterally: executive
orders, signing statements, etc.
Limited to two full terms in office
The State of the Union address is
delivered by the President but “it
is really no more than a wish list”.
The president submits an annual
budget to Congress but this is the
start of “many months of
bargaining during which the
president may be defeated on
many items”.
President is a singular executive.
Presidential appointments of
executive branch officials require
approval by the Senate
The president can sign and veto
legislation.
The president appoints all federal
judges
The president has the power of
pardon
The president is head of state
UK prime minister
Elected as party leader
Head of government only
Draws up government’s legislative
programme with cabinet
Appoints cabinet (no approval)
Can use royal prerogative to
declare war and deploy troops
abroad but recently more subject
to parliamentary approval LINK
May appoint deputy prime
minister LINK
Has (small) Number 10 staff and
Cabinet Office
More likely to pursue policy
collectively, through either
cabinet of cabinet committees
No term limits
The monarch delivers the
King’s/Queen’s Speech but the
prime minister has written it and
“a list of near certainities”.
The budget that is submitted is, to
all intents and purposes the
budget that is passed. DUP
'Confidence and Supply'
The prime minister is part of a
collective executive.
The prime minister does not
require anyone to approve the
appointments that she/he makes
The monarch can refuse to sign a
bill, but this hasn’t happened
since 1707 – 80 years before the
US Constitution was conceived.
Since 2006 the independent
Judicial Appointments
Commission appoints judges.
The monarch has the power of
pardon LINK
The monarch is head of state
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
Congress is not able to question
the president on a regular basis
The president is not able to make
occasional statements to Congress
The president does not have
equivalent powers of patronage.
Prime Minister’s Question for 30
minutes each week that
Parliament is sitting.
The prime minister can make
occasional statements and can
appear before the Commons’
Liaison Committee.
PM patronage also includes the
chairmanship of the BBC, Church
of England bishops, and
recommending life peerages
US president and UK prime minister: comparing relations with the
legislature
“As we already know, the most significant difference is structural: the US
president is not and cannot be a member of Congress whereas the British
prime minister must be a serving member of Parliament.”
US president’s relations with
Congress
State of the Union Address
Dependent on Senate
confirmation of numerous
appointments
Possibility of divided government
Budget may be significantly
amended or defeated in Congress
No executive branch members in
Congress
Not subject to personal
questioning by members of
Congress
Gets agreement in Congress
mostly by persuasion and
bargaining
President individually subject to
impeachment (House) and trial
(Senate)
The Senate does not have any of
these devices to hold the
President to account.
UK prime minister’s relations
with Parliament
Queen’s Speech
Makes numerous appointments
without need for legislature to
consent
May not have a majority in House
of Lords
Budget subject to parliamentary
scrutiny
Executive branch members in
both houses, and dominates
House of Commons
Prime Minister’s questions
Gets agreement in Parliament
mostly by party discipline and
reliance on the payroll vote in the
House of Commons
Prime minister and government
collectively subject to vote of no
confidence
Parliament can hold the
government to account through:
Question Time; select
committees; policy debates; early
day motions; and votes of no
confidence.
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
“In their respective cabinets we see more structural differences between
the two systems, which give rise to different political outcomes. … All
executive power is vested in the president, none in the cabinet, which is
why its members are correctly referred to as cabinet officers or
secretaries, not cabinet ministers.”
“Cabinet officers will not have served together as part of a shadow
cabinet before taking office. … As a result, the president’s cabinet
functions merely as a somewhat distant advice-giving body with little
collective significance in most administrations.”
US cabinet
Serving members of the
legislature barred from serving
Presidential appointments subject
to Senate confirmation
President decides frequency and
regularity of meetings
Cabinet meetings are subordinate
to the president who is in no way
‘first among equals’; cabinet does
not make decisions – the
president does
Cabinet members are mostly
recruited for their policy
specialisations: rarely do they
move to a different department
Cabinet members are often
strangers to the president; no
shadow cabinet
Cabinet meetings are often the
only time some cabinet members
see the president
No doctrine of collective
responsibility
Only the president has an elective
base
None of the cabinet are rivals to
the president
UK cabinet
Membership exclusive to
members of Parliament
No formal limits on cabinet
appointments
Prime minister obliged to
maintain frequency and regularity
of meetings
Cabinet is a collective decisionmaking body
Cabinet members are usually
policy generalists: hence cabinet
reshuffles
Cabinet made up of long-serving
parliamentary colleagues and
former shadow cabinet members
Prime minister sees cabinet
colleagues regularly in Parliament
Collective responsibility usually
applies.
Most are members of the House
of Commons and so have the
same elective base as the Prime
Minister.
Some of the cabinet are likely to
be leadership rivals to the Prime
Minister
“The stark structural differences between the two systems mean that the
cabinet in Whitehall is an entirely different beast from its namesake in
Washington. … no prime minister could ignore the collective will of the
cabinet the way the American president can, and hope to survive in office
for very long.”
The Presidency
Taken from Chapter Four of US Government and Politics by A.J.
Bennett
Although Bennett acknowledges both Hailsham’s (1976) “elective
dictatorship” and Schlesinger’s (1973) “imperial presidency”, he concludes
his study of the US presidency thus:
“our understanding of the structures of government in the United
Kingdom should make us cautious of describing the office of the prime
minister as having been ‘presidentialised’. In terms of what they can get
done in the legislature, British prime ministers have always been in a
much stronger position than American presidents. On the other hand, to
call prime ministers ‘presidential’ in terms of their staff and support has
always been very wide of the mark. The office occupied and run by Tony
Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May looks nothing like
the Executive Office of the President in Washington under George W.
Bush, Barack Obama or Donald Trump. The offices remain different,
mainly because the structures in which they operate are so different.”