Mr. Schaber
AP Political Science
Wilson Ch. 14 - The Presidency
Presidents and Prime Ministers
1) The popularly elected president is an ________________________ invention. (368)
2) How long does a prime minister in a parliamentary system stay in power? (368)
3) True / False - Most presidents in U.S. history were members of Congress just before becoming
president. (369)
4) Who usually gets chosen (by the president) as heads of cabinet-level departments in the U.S.? (369)
5) A prime minister's party (or coalition) _____________________ has a majority in parliament, while a
president's party (in the U.S.) ________________ does not have a congressional majority. (370)
Divided Government
6) Define 'divided government.' (370)
7) Define 'unified government.' (370)
8) What does the word 'gridlock' mean (in government terms). (371)
9) How do divided governments do compared to unified governments in regards to passing important
laws, conducting important investigations, and ratifying significant treaties? (371)
10) Who has less ability to decide what laws get passed - a U.S. president or a British prime minister?
(371)
11) Why is gridlock a necessary consequence of a system of representative democracy? (372)
The Evolution of the Presidency
12) True / False - The Founders all agreed about how to create the office of U.S. president. (372)
13) What were the issues discussed by the Founders in regards to the creation of the U.S. presidency?
(372-373)
14) What is the electoral college? (373)
15) What amendment to the Constitution limited the U.S. president to two terms in office? (373)
16) True / False - The office of U.S. president was kept simple and modest during the years of the 'First
Presidents.' (374-375)
17) How did Andrew Jackson change the U.S. presidency? (375-376)
18) What happened with Congress at the end of Andrew Jackson's second term? How long did this
situation last? (377)
19) Who was the only president during this time of congressional dominance that broke new ground for
presidential power? What did he do? (378)
20) Our popular conception of the president as the ________________ figure of national government,
devising a ________________________ program and _________________________ a large staff of
advisers, is very much a product of the _________________ era and of the __________________ role of
government. (378)
21) Since the __________ the presidency has been _________________________ no matter who
occupied the office and whether or not there was a ______________________. (378)
The Powers of the President
22) What article of the Constitution deals mostly with the power of the president? (379)
23) What are some of the powers the president alone can exercise? (379)
24) What are two powers the president shares with the Senate? (379)
25) What power does the president share with Congress as a whole? (379)
26) The president's authority as commander-in-chief has grown to encompass not simply the direction
of the ____________________ forces, but also the management of the __________________ and the
direction of __________________ affairs as well. (379-380)
27) Where is the greatest source of presidential power found? (380)
The Office of the President
28) Where do the president's closest assistants have offices? (381)
29) When a president's subordinates report to him through a chain of command led by the chief of staff
it is known as a ____________________ structure. (381)
30) A _____________________ structure is when several of the president's assistants report directly to
him. (381)
31) When several subordinates, cabinet officers, and committees report directly to the president on
different matters it is an _______ ____________ structure. (381)
32) Typically, where are senior White House staff members drawn from? (383)
33) Agencies in the Executive Office report directly to the president but are not located in the White
House. What is perhaps the most important agency in the Executive Office? (383)
34) What is (the president's) 'cabinet?' (384)
35) What is a great advantage the president has in making appointments to the Senate? (385)
Who Gets Appointed
36) True / False - The president knows all of the people he appoints to government positions. (385)
37) Of late a tendency has developed for presidents to place in their ___________________ people
known for their _______________________ or administrative _________________________ rather
than for their political following. (386-387)
Presidential Character
38) Every president brings to the White House a distinctive ________________________, which affects
the way the White House is organized and run. (388)
The Power to Persuade
39) The president must rely heavily on _________________________ if he is to accomplish much. (390)
40) The president's persuasive powers are aimed at three audiences. What are they? (390)
a)
b)
c)
41) Presidents have made fewer and fewer ______________________ remarks in the years since
Franklin _______________________ held office and have instead relied more and more on
_______________________ speeches from which political ________________ can be _______________
in advance. (390)
42) What is the 'bully pulpit?' (390)
43) It is true that a winning president will find that his party's strength in Congress _________________.
(391)
44) True / False - A president's popularity can have a big effect on how much of his program(s) Congress
passes. (391)
45) When does a president's popularity tend to be the highest? (394)
The Power to Say No
46) What is meant by a president's 'veto message?' (394)
47) What is a 'pocket veto?' (394)
48) What happens to a bill that is not signed or vetoed within ten days while Congress is still in session?
(395)
49) What is a 'line-item veto?' (395)
50) True /False - Presidents of the United States have line-item veto power. (395)
51) What has the Supreme Court said about 'executive privilege?' (396)
52) Federal courts have upheld the rule that the _____________________ must spend, without delay
for policy reasons, money that _____________________ has appropriated. (397)
The President's Program
53) There are basically two ways for a president to develop a program. What are they? (397)
a)
b)
54) What are four of the major constraints on a president's ability to plan a successful program? (398)
a)
b)
c)
d)
55) What two key issues has every president in recent decades been forced to devote much of his time
to? (399)
a)
b)
56) True / False - Most presidents since 1928 have tried to change the structure of the executive
department (their staffs, departments, and agencies) in one way or another. (400)
57) True / False - Congress has the power of legislative veto. (400)
Presidential Transition
58) About what percentage of presidents since George Washington have been elected to a second
term? (401)
59) Through 2006, how many times has a vice president become president because of the death of his
predecessor? (401)
60) What is the only official task of the vice president? (401)
61) Absent of a crisis, the vice president is, at best, only an _________________ to the president. (402)
62) According to the Twenty-fifth Amendment, what happens if the president declares that he is unable
to perform the duties of his office? (402)
63) Also according to the Twenty-fifth Amendment, what does the vice president do when the president
(his predecessor) dies or resigns? (402)
64) There is one other way - besides death, disability, or resignation - by which a president can leave
office before his term expires, and that is by ____________________________. (403)
65) What is impeachment, and how does the process work? (403)
66) How many presidents have been brought up on impeachment charges in U.S. history? How many
were convicted by the Senate? (403)
67) President ___________________ would surely have been impeached and removed from office, but
he ______________________ first. (403)
68) What is meant by a 'lame duck' politician? (404)
How Powerful Is The President?
69) What are three of the rules of thumb presidents use to deal with their political problems, and what
does each rule mean? (406)
a)
b)
c)