The Presidency
• Article II of the Constitution
– 4 year term of office with no limit until 1951
– 22nd Amendment – 10 years max; 2 electoral victories
• Electoral College
– No direct popular vote
• Constitutional Qualifications
– At least 35 years old
– Natural born citizen
– Resident of U.S. for 14 years
Presidential Oath
• "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that
I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and
will to the best of my Ability,
preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States."
The Evolution of the Presidency
• Until the 20th century, the presidency played
a back seat to Congress
• Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln were
exceptions to this
• Only in the 20th century has the presidency
evolved into the powerful institution that it is
today
Enumerated/Delegated Powers
• Article II, Section 2
– Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces
– Can pardon federal crimes (Ford)
– Make treaties
– Appoints ambassadors, federal judges
– Give a state of the union address
– Faithfully execute the laws – Chief Executive
Presidential Powers
•
•
•
•
•
National Security
Diplomatic
Appointment
Legislative
Executive
National Security Powers
• The founders made a civilian the highest
military authority in the U.S. Why?
– To minimize/check the power of the military
• He leads the entire defense establishment in
the U.S.
– The Department of Defense (DOD)
– The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
– The National Security Agency (NSA) and the
National Security Counsel (NSC)
– The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
War Making Power
• Congress has the power to declare war but the
last time this was done was on December 8,
1941
• Since then, presidents have asserted their
authority to deploy U.S. troops as the
Commander-in-Chief
• Since Korea, Congress has funded U.S. military
actions (they don’t have to) and given
resolutions of support for them(Remember the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?)
The War Powers Act (1973)
• At the tail end of the Vietnam War, Congress
tried to limit the president’s war making
powers
• Without congressional authorization, the
president can only send troops into combat
for up to 90 days
• Since 1973, this has been largely ignored and
Congress has continuously authorized and
funded military actions taken by U.S.
presidents Why?
Domestic Power
• The president also has the authority to
protect the states against “invasion” and
“domestic violence”
• This has been interpreted to mean the
president has a broad range of authority
– Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
– Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock in 1957
– Declaring a “state of emergency” after natural
disasters like hurricanes (FEMA)
Diplomatic Powers
• Chief of State – President represents U.S. in
dealing with other countries
• Meets and greets foreign dignitaries (State
dinners)
• Negotiates treaties (2/3 ratification in
Senate)
• “Recognizes” other countries (Diplomatic
Recognition)
Executive Agreements
• In order to avoid the difficulty of receiving a
2/3 vote to ratify a treaty, presidents have
often used executive agreements, though not
delegated in the Constitution
• Executive Agreements carry the weight of
treaties but do not require Senate approval
(but Congress can refuse to fund them)
• They are NOT binding on the next president
Appointment Powers
• The President fills all vacancies in federal
judgeships, appoints the heads of the
executive departments (The Cabinet), and
appoints the heads of federal agencies
including the Federal Reserve (all with
Senate “advice and consent”)
• The President can also grant pardons (Ford
of Nixon)
Legislative Powers
• The modern president initiates
legislation (legislative initiative)
• The State of the Union address outlines
the President’s legislative agenda
• The most influential presidents are
successful in getting Congress to pass
legislation they desire
Legislative Powers
• The President also submits an
annual budget to Congress
• The Veto
–See Website Page 3 link
Executive Orders
• Congress gives the President the
power to issue Executive Orders
• Carry the weight of law
• Expire at the end of their
presidency
• Have been used for a variety of
reasons historically
Executive Orders
• Famous Executive Orders
– Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was an
Executive Order
– FDR issued Executive Order 9066 which led to the
establishment of Japanese internment camps
during WWII
– Truman issued Executive Order 9835 to establish
a program of determining if Communist
sympathizers were in the federal government
(Loyalty program)
– See Website Page 3 links
Executive Powers
• The Chief Executive
• The President heads the Executive Branch of
the federal government and is charged with
“executing,” or enforcing, the laws passed by
Congress
• Nearly 2 million Americans work in the
Executive Branch of the federal government
(The Federal Bureaucracy)
• 4 million if you include the armed forces
The Institutional Presidency
• The modern presidency is multifaceted
• There is an intricate support system
in place that is designed to assist
the president in doing his job
• This is known as the Institutional
Presidency
The White House
The White House
• Take White House tour
The White House Staff
• The closest personal advisors to the
president
• They do NOT need to be approved by the
Senate
• Chief of Staff
• Press Secretary
• Senior Advisors
• Counselor to the President
• Director of Speech Writing
Chief of Staff
• Denis
McDonough
• Since
February
2013
The Executive Office of the President
(EOP)
• Established by FDR in 1939
• Agencies that assist the president
with a wide range of tasks
• The Chief of Staff coordinates this
group of agencies as they work with
the president
The Executive Office of the President
(EOP)
• Office of Management and Budget
(OMB)
• The National Security Council (NSC)
• The Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)
• Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Includes the VP of the United States
The Vice Presidency
• "Once there were two brothers.
One ran away to sea; the other
was elected vice president of
the United States. And nothing
was heard of either of them
again"
The Vice Presidency
• John Nance Garner once claimed that
the Vice Presidency “is not worth a
bucket of warm spit.”
• Why did he feel this way?
–Virtually no constitutional power
–Break ties in Senate votes (rare)
–“A heartbeat away from the
presidency”
The Vice Presidency
• Traditionally, the VP was used to “balance
the ticket” for the general election
• Usually a geographic balance
– JFK needed to win some southern support
in 1960 so he asked the Senate Majority
Leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, to be his
running mate
The Vice Presidency
• The Vice Presidency has evolved into a more
powerful position in recent history
• Al Gore was an important advisor in the
Clinton presidency
• Dick Cheney was perhaps the most powerful
VP in U.S. history
• President Obama has given Joe Biden a wide
range of responsibilities in the realm of
foreign policy
The First Lady
• Modern First Ladies
adopt causes to
devote themselves
to
• Nancy Reagan –
War on Drugs
• Hillary Clinton –
Health Care
• Laura Bush –
Education
• Michelle Obama –
Fitness and health
The Cabinet
• The appointed heads of the 15 Executive
Departments (with Senate approval)
• The Cabinet is another part of the
Institutional Presidency
• George Washington began the practice
of using the Cabinet as advisors
The Cabinet
• Modern presidents tend to confide
more in the White House Staff than the
Cabinet
• The secretaries of State, Defense, and
Treasury as well as the Attorney General
are part of the National Security Council
(NSC)
The Executive Departments
• Name the 15 Executive Departments and the
years they were established
• Cabinet scavenger hunt
Secretary of State
• John Kerry
(D-MA)
Secretary of Defense
• Ashton Carter
Attorney General
• Loretta
Lynch
• First
African
American
Female
Attorney
General
Secretary of the Treasury
• Jack Lew
• Former
Director of
the OMB
• Obama’s Chief
of Staff in
2012 and
2013
Secretary of Homeland Security
• Jeh (Jay)
Johnson
Executive Department Employees
• Which Executive Departments do you
think employ the most people? (top 4)
–Justice (114K)
–Homeland Security (216K)
–Veterans Affairs (235K)
–Defense (3 Million)
Executive Department Budgets
• Which Executive Departments have
the largest budgets? (Top 4)
–Veterans Affairs ($90B)
–Agriculture ($95B)
–Defense ($527B)
–Health and Human Services ($700B)
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947
• Established an order of succession if the
President and VP died unexpectedly
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
1. Speaker of the House
2. Senate president pro tempore
3. Secretary of State
4. Secretary of the Treasury
5. Secretary of Defense
6. Attorney General
***The rest of the Cabinet in the order their
department was created
The Imperial Presidency
• Based on a 1973 book written by historian
Arthur Schlesinger
• Argued that the presidency had grown too
powerful; it had exceeded the powers given
by the Constitution
• Greatly influenced by the events of Vietnam
and the growing Watergate scandal (LBJ and
Nixon)
“Lame Duck”
• From November 8, 2016 to January 20,
2017 President Obama will be a lame
duck. What does this mean?
• He will still be in office but will not have
the real authority and power that he
used to
• This term applies to other people in a
similar situation
The President and Congress
• What factors affect the relationship between
a President and the Congress?
– Partisan make-up of Congress/Divided
Government
– President’s persuasive skill/ability
– Willingness of both sides to work with each
other
– National emergency/foreign crisis
• “Politics stops at the water’s edge”
The Independent Executive Agencies
• They are independent of the Executive
Departments and they are independent of
most presidential control (although he does
nominate the agency heads).
• Established by Congress and their actions
carry the weight of law
• Nature of the Independent Agencies
– Regulatory
– Provide special services
Regulatory Agencies
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
– Protect investors and watches over stock market
activity
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
– Issues environmental regulations
• Federal Election Commission (FEC)
– Campaign finance laws
Regulatory Agencies
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
– TV, Radio
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
– Nuclear power plants
• Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Special Services
•
•
•
•
•
Social Security Administration
U.S. Postal Service
National Endowment for the Arts
Federal Reserve System
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
2nd Term Curse?
• Website Link – Page 3
Sabato’s Crystal Ball
A Day Without Bureaucracies is a Day
Without Sunshine
• Construct a story of the day in the life of
a college student where they are
affected by at least 8 bureaucratic
agencies.
• USDA, ATF, BEA, CIA, CPSC, Dept. of
Education, EPA, FDA, NASA, NEH, Social
Security Administration, Weather
Service, FCC, U.S. Postal Service
The Federal Bureaucracy
• What do you think we’d find if we compared
the number of people employed by the
federal government in 1962 compared to
today?
• What about just in the Executive Branch?
• The Uniformed Military?
• The Legislative and Judicial Branches?
• See Website Page 3
The Federal Bureaucracy
• The same is true of federal spending
• In nominal numbers, spending has
dramatically increased
• But as a percentage of our economy and
in relation to the growth of our society,
the changes are much less dramatic
The Federal Bureaucracy
• The bureaucracy consists of the large
number of offices and agencies that
carry out the tasks of government
• Bureaucracies are hierarchical
organizations with a chain of command
and a established set of rules and
policies (Standard Operating Procedures
– SOPs)
The Federal Bureaucracy
• Bureaucrats – the non-elected workers in a
bureaucracy (aka Civil Servants)
• Bureaucrat has a negative connotation
• Perceived to be a rule follower, mechanical,
unimaginative, not caring about personal
situations…
• Someone who shuffles papers, keeps files, is
lazy, and not very intelligent
• Read – Who are Bureaucrats (Website Page 3)
The Federal Bureaucracy
• Bureaucrats – the non-elected workers in a
bureaucracy (aka Civil Servants)
• Bureaucracies and Bureaucrats carry out the
laws that Congress establishes
• Congress lacks the expertise of these
bureaucrats and doesn’t have the time to
devote to each of these areas
The Federal Bureaucracy
• The bureaucracies establish rules and
procedures to do this that carry the weight of
law and are published in the Federal Register
• They also play a role similar to the courts in
that they adjudicate cases involving the
violations of these rules
How Do Bureaucrats Get Their Jobs?
• Prior to the 1880s it was a system of
patronage…aka the spoils system(who you
knew and who you supported politically)
• Today, it is mostly through a merit system
established by the 1883 Civil Service Reform
Act (aka the Pendleton Act)
• The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
does most of the hiring
The Plum Book
• Lists the top bureaucratic positions available
through presidential appointment
– Agency heads and other top officials
Red Tape
• The forms and procedures
necessary to receive
bureaucratic approval
Congress and the Bureaucracy
Congressional Oversight
• Congress creates the bureaucratic agencies,
gives them some independence, and watches
over them
• No agency can spend money unless
authorized and appropriated by Congress
• Congress rarely gives any one job to a single
agency
Congressional Oversight
• For example: The Drug War falls under the
jurisdiction of
– The Customs Service
– The Border Patrol
– The FBI
– The Drug Enforcement Agency
– The Defense Department
Congressional Oversight of the
Bureaucracy
• This spreads power but it also can inhibit the
government’s response
• Congress also conducts hearings to watch
over the bureaucracy (Remember the
hearings into the IRS scandal)
• Finally, Congress can rewrite legislation and
provide detailed orders to particular federal
agencies
The President and the Bureaucracy
• The agencies are ultimately responsible
to the President
• He appoints the senior bureaucrats
including the agency heads
• Sometimes the career bureaucrats
conflict with the new agency heads
The President and the Bureaucracy
• The President can issue executive orders that
must be followed
• The President can recommend, through the
OMB, to increase or reduce an agency’s
budget
• The President can play a role in reorganizing
or combining agencies (Homeland Security)
Iron Triangles (Subgovernments)
• The alliance that exists between
Congressional committees and
subcommittees, Interest Groups,
and Bureaucratic agencies
• This is an alliance of cooperation
and mutual benefits
Iron Triangles
• Boeing-DOD-Armed Services Committee
• American Federation of TeachersDepartment of Education-Subcommittee
on Secondary Education
• AARP-Social Security AdministrationSubcommittee on Aging
Issue Networks
• In essence, these iron triangles are a
complex issue network
• A network of people invested in a
particular issue
• This includes the citizens, academics,
mass media, bureaucratic agencies,
and politicians that regularly discuss
and debate certain issues
Odds and Ends
• 12th, 22nd, and 25th Amendments
• 25th – Presidential Succession and Disability
– Only place that specifies the VP becomes
President (Everything else is in the Presidential
Succession Act of 1947)
– President fills vacancy in Vice Presidency with
majority vote in both houses of Congress
Odds and Ends
• Written statement to Speaker and President
Pro Tem of the Senate if president is unable
to carry out his duties
• Written statement again to resume
authority but that can be denied
Odds and Ends
• Impoundment – When a president orders
an executive agency NOT to spend money
appropriated by Congress (1974 Law was
designed to restore Congressional
supremacy when it comes to the budget)
• Gridlock
• Executive Privilege - U.S. v. Nixon (1974)
• Imperial Presidency
James D. Barber’s Presidential
Character
• Active or Passive?
– How much energy is invested in his presidency?
– LBJ worked long hours, Coolidge slept 11 hours
and napped during the day
– Does he want to wield power?
• Positive or Negative?
– Does he like his job? Does he like politics?
James D. Barber’s Presidential
Character
• Active-Positive (confident, enjoys power)
– FDR, Truman, JFK, Ford
• Active-Negative (compulsive, driven, worries about
perception of him)
– Lincoln, Wilson, Hoover, LBJ, Nixon
Passive-Positive (want to be liked, ingratiating
personality)
– Madison, Taft, Harding, Reagan
• Passive-Negative (withdrawn, responds to sense of
duty)
– Washington, Coolidge, Eisenhower
The Assessment