Name: _____________________________
Period: _ _
Growth of Presidential Power
Document A: Reasons for Expansion
The extraordinary expansion of the Presidency has come for several reasons
1. Executive Article: The Constitution is vague in outlining the limit on executive power.
2. Unity: The office and its powers are held by one person. The President is a single, commanding
chief executive. In contrast, Congress is composed of two houses and both must agree before
Congress can do anything.
3. Economy and Society: the nation’s increasingly complex economic and social life has also had a
telling effect on presidential power. As the United States has become more industrial and
technologically advanced, the people have demanded that the Federal Government take a larger
still larger role transportation, communication, health, welfare, employment, education and civil
rights. And they have looked especially to the President for leadership in those matters.
4. War: The need for immediate and decisive action in times of crisis, and most notably in times of
war has also had a major impact here. The ability of the President- the single, commanding chief
executive – to act in those situations has done much to strength ‘the executive power.’
5. Mass media- the President, more so in modern times, can be seen and heard on the radio and
television.
How has the Executive Article provided fuel to the debate on presidential power?
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How are times of prosperity and times of distress a tool for the expansion of executive power?
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Document B: Theodore Roosevelt
“My view was that every executive officer… was a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively to
do all that he could for the people… I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for
the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it 1
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Theodore Roosevelt, 1913
Government Class
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Name: _____________________________
Period: _ _
What did Teddy Roosevelt mean by the quote from the passage? What message is he trying to get across?
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How would you imagine Roosevelt was as a President, regarding Presidential power? Explain your
reasoning.
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Document C: William Howard Taft
“The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant
of power or justly implied and included within such express grant…Such specific grant must be either in the
Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined
[remnant] of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.”2
What did William Taft mean by the quote from the passage? What message is he trying to get across?
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How would you imagine Taft was as a President, regarding Presidential power? Explain your reasoning.
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Compare and Contrast the comments by Presidents Roosevelt and Taft on this page. Whose view do you
think most modern-day Presidents have favored?
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Analyze what factors have contributed to the growth of the presidential power
Analyze the quote on the SMARTBOARD. What does it mean? Do you agree with it? Explain.
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William Howard Taft, 1916
Government Class
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Name: _____________________________
Period: _ _
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Government Class
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