Outline: Chapter 8 – The Presidency

 

Intro (270)

  • The framers could not have known how powerful the Pres is now or how his actions are often regarded with skepticism
  • Tension between the public’s expectations and the President’s formal powers have evolved over time
  • Topics:

1)       Roots of the office

2)       Constitutional powers of the President

3)       Development of presidential power and how it is based on popularity

4)       Presidential establishment

5)       Role in the legislative process

6)       President and public opinion

7)       Continuity and change

 

 

The Roots of the Office of President of the United States (271)

  • Earliest executive power in the colonies was the royal governor
    • Powers of appointment, military command, expenditure, and (to an extent) pardon and law making
    • Appointed by the King and as such was distrusted by the colonists
  • After declaring independence powers were reduced making governor (now elected by the legislature) largely symbolic

 

The Constitutional Convention (271)

  • Executive branch to execute (implement) the laws
    • Most agreed its powers should be vested in a single individual
    • Sticking point over how the president was to be elected – electoral college agreed on (more in Ch13)

 

Qualifications for Office (272) – Natural-born US citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for at least fourteen years

 

Terms of Office (272)

    • Proposed 4, 7, and 11 year terms with no re-election
    • Agreed on 4 year terms with reelection allowed
      • 1st President Washington only sought reelection once and two terms became tradition
    • Grant was the first to run for a third term (did not get it)
    • Roosevelt was the first to win a third (and fourth) term
      • Congress made the 22nd Amendment and it was ratified to limit a President to two terms (or ten years if a VP assumes office for a portion of a term)

 

Removal (272)

    • Impeachment supported by Franklin so that assassination would not be the means of removal
      • Checks the power of the President
      • Process described in detail in Chapter 7’s notes

 

Succession (274)

  • Vice President provides a system of orderly power transfer
    • 1st needed when Harrison died a month after entering office from a cold caught at his inauguration
    • Lincoln the first to be assassinated
    • Nixon the first to resign
  • If no Vice President, then Congress appoints a President
    • This changed by the Succession Act of 1947 which changes the line of succession after the VP to:

1.        Speaker of the House

2.        President pro tempore of the Senate

3.        Sec State, Treasury, Defense, and other Cabinet heads in order of creation of their dept

  • 25th Amendment (1967) – directs the Pres to appoint new VP with simple majority approval by Congress

o        Used twice: Nixon chose Ford after Agnew resigned and Ford chose Rockefeller after Nixon resigned

§         First time when neither the Pres and VP had been elected to those positions

    • Also allows the VP and a majority of the Cabinet or other body determined by Congress to relieve an incapacitated President
    • Also allows President to relinquish power voluntarily (Reagan did in ’85 for his colon surgery)

 

The Vice President (276)

  • Originally the only function was to stand-in for the President if needed
  • Expanded by Framers to be presiding officer of the Senate (except in impeachment cases)
  • Used often to balance the ticket out
    • Early candidates chose complete opposites
    • Recently, running mates are usually from the same party and share interests but have different experiences
  • Pres Carter gave his VP (Mondale) the first real powers a VP had
    • First to have an office in the White House (VP did not have an office in the Exec Office Building until 1961)
    • Now, VPs are more active and better informed
      • Cheney was in the White House (not Bush) after 9/11
  • VP is not really a stepping stone to the Presidency

 

 

The Constitutional Powers of the President (278)

  • Limits of constitutional powers changed based on how each president asserts himself

 

The Appointment Power (278)

  • Appoints Ambassadors, public ministers and consuls, Supreme Court Justices, and other officers of the US
    • 3,200 appointments in total (1,125 require Senate confirmation)
    • 75,000 military personnel are technically appointed by the President
    • The justices a president appoints allow his influence to be felt long after he leaves office
  • President’s look for a blend of loyalty, competence, and integrity
  • Most appointments usually confirmed, especially Cabinet (formal body of Pres advisors) members
    • 97% of Clinton’s appointments were confirmed
  • Rejections or very long delays can have a big impact on a presidency

 

The Power to Convene Congress (280) – pres can convene either or both houses of Congress on “extraordinary occasions”

 

The Power to Make Treaties (280)

  • Senate must approve w/ a 2/3 majority; historically 70% are ratified; only 16 denied by vote
  • Executive Agreement – allows Pres to enter into secretive deals with other nations; not binding on future presidents
  • Can also receive ambassadors
    • Has been broadly interpreted to allow the President to recognize the existence of nations

 

Veto Power (281)

  • Veto power is the president’s authority to reject any legislation (except joint resolutions proposing amendments)
    • Threat of a veto may result in changes
    • Difficult to override a veto – only 100 of 2,500 vetoes have been overridden
  • Line-item veto was proposed by Grant and many others; allow executive to veto only parts of bills
    • Congress passed a bill in 1996 that gave the President that power
    • In 1998 Clinton used it to deny payment to NYC and NYC brought the case to the Supreme court
      • The court ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional

 

The Power to Preside over the Military as Commander in Chief (283)

  • One of president’s most important powers
  • Vietnam conducted without Congress declaring war
  • War Powers Act of 1973 prohibits the introducing of US troops into hostile lands without Congressional approval
    • Violated many times (Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton)
  • Bush sought and received in 2001 a joint resolution authorizing use of force against those responsible for 9/11
    • Much more broad than the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

 

The Pardoning Power (284) – Check on judicial powers

  • Pardon – executive grant releasing an individual from punishment of a crime before or after conviction
    • Can pardon any federal case except one concerning impeachment
  • Politically risky for 1st term presidents – usually it can get presidents in big trouble with their voters
    • Ford, Carter, and Bush all lost reelection bids partially due to this
      • Ford pardoned Nixon “for any offenses against the US, which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed while in office.” (most famous pardon)
      • Carter pardoned 10,000 men who fled the US to avoid being drafted for Vietnam
      • Bush pardoned six admin officials for conduct in the Iran-Contra affair
  • Less risky for 2nd term presidents; uproar after Clinton pardoned 140 people on the last day of his presidency

 

 

The Development of Presidential Power (285)

  • 43 presidents, but only 42 people held the office (Grover Cleveland twice; 22nd and 24th president)
  • Presidents authority limited by formal powers enumerated in Article I
  • Different times call for different types of leaders: provides limits, opportunities

 

The First Three Presidents (286)

  • Washington, April 30, 1789
    • Federal budget – $40 million, 2002-$1.96 trillion

o        Established primacy of national government

o        Began practice of regular meetings with advisors (Cabinet)

o        Asserted prominence of role of chief of executive in the conduct of foreign affairs

o        Claimed inherent power (powers that can be derived or inferred from specific powers in the Constitution)

  • John Adam and Thomas Jefferson

o        Critical to the development of presidency and president’s role in political system

o        Adam’s poor leadership divided Federalists and Anti-Federalists, quickened development of political parties

o        Jefferson made strong ties with congress and expanded the role of president in legislative process

o        Louisiana Purchase – 1803 land purchase auth by Jefferson; expanded the size of the US dramatically

 

Congressional Triumph: 1804-1933 (287)

  • Power weighed heavily in favor of strong Congress; weak presidents
  • Andrew Jackson – 1st strong national leader; “Jacksonian democracy” – embodied western, frontier, egalitarian spirit personified by Jackson; reasserted the supremacy of the national government
  • Abraham Lincoln – frequently took action without approval of Congress

o        Didn’t allow prisoners to petition to be released

o        Expanded U.S. army

o        Ordered blockade of southern ports

o        Closed US mail to treasonable correspondence

  • Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) and Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

o        Expanded powers of presidency

o        Roosevelt followed stewardship theory – the theory that holds that Article II confers on the president the power and the duty to take whatever actions are deemed necessary in the national interest, unless prohibited by the Constitution or by law

o        Wilson reinstated State of the Union address

  • Most pres adopt Taftian theory – holds the pres is limited by the specific grants of exec power found in the Constitution

 

The Growth of the Modern Presidency (288)

  • Technology has intensified public’s expectations of any president
  • Congress too slow in fast-changing events
  • FDR started trend of more presidential gov; Great Depression, New Deal

o        Declared bank holiday to end public runs on depleted resources of many banks

o         Passed legislature to provide for emerg relief, public works jobs, regulation of farm prod, improved work conditions

o        Started executive branch practice of sending legislative programs to Congress for approval

o        Increased size of federal bureaucracy from 600,000 to more than one million workers

The Presidential Establishment (290)

  • Today pres has many policy advisors (attorney general, surgeon general, VP, Cabinet, 1st lady and her staff, etc)

 

The Cabinet (290)

  • Informal institution based on practice and precedent whose membership is determined by tradition and pres discretion
  • Includes heads of all major departments
  • Helps president execute laws and assist him in making decisions

 

First Lady (291)

  • Have assisted pres as informal advisers while making other, more public, significant contributions to American society
  • Heightened interest since Hillary Rodham Clinton

 

Executive Office of the President (EOP) (292)

  • Establishment created in 1939 by FDR to help the president oversee the bureaucracy
  • Includes several advisory and policy-making agencies and task forces; responsible to executive branch
  • National Security Council, Council of Economic Advisers, Office of Management and Budget, Office of the Vice President, U.S Trade Representative

 

White House Staff (293) – senior aides, their deputies, assistants with professional duties, clerical and administrative aides

  • Power derived from personal relationships with the president, no independent legal authority
  • Chief of staff facilitates the smooth running of staff and executive branch

 

 

Role of these Presidents in the Legislative Process:  The President as Policy Maker (294)

  • FDR used presidential view – one who believes that Article II’s grant of executive power is a broad grant of authority allowing a president wide discretionary powers
  • Republicans use congressionalist view – one who believes that Article II’s provision that the pres should ensure “faithful execution of the laws” should be read as an injunction against substituting pres authority for legislative intent
  • Modern presidents play a major role in setting legislative agenda
  • Have hard time getting Congress to pass their programs

 

Presidential Involvement in the Budgetary Process (296)

·         President Nixon established Office of Management and Budget (OMB); works exclusively for the pres and employs hundreds of budget and policy experts

o        Prepare pres annual budget proposal, designing the pres program, reviewing the process, budget, and program proposals of the executive department agencies

·          Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 increased importance of exec branch in the budget process

·          1990, realized budget would not be met; gave OMB authority to access each appropriations bill; got rid of Balanced Budget Act

  • 1998 Bill Clinton balanced budget

 

Ruling Through Legislation (298)

Executive order – A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the effect of law.  All executive orders must be published in the Federal Register.

-          In time of highly divided gov’t

-          Clarify/implement legislation enacted by Congress or make new policy

-          i.e. Truman – end to segregation in the military, LBJ – affirmative action, GWB – Homeland Sec. Dept.

-          Also GWB eviscerated the 1978 Presidential Records Act (“records of the president belong to the American people,” former presidents could block records for up to 12 years, nat’l archivist makes them public) – now it requires the permission of the former and incumbent president while extending privilege to immediate family (protect father’s (GB’s) actions in Iran Contra?)

 

Winning support for programs (299)

                Three ways to improve role as legislative lobbyist:

1. Patronage and Party Ties (traditional) (302)

- Patronage – jobs, grants, or other special favors that are given as rewards to friends and political allies for their support.

- Call for party loyalty in Congress (LBJ, Reagan very successful presidents because their respective parties had a strong majority in Congress)

                                2. Presidential Style (traditional) (302)

                                                - Less political, more personalized strategy

- Personality, approach to the office, others’ perception of his ability to lead, ability to mobilize public opinion to support his actions

- Great presidents understand that the White House is a seat of power from which decisions could flow to shape the national destiny à day-to-day activities should bolster support (the White House is not “a stage for the presentation of performances to the public”)

                                3. Presidential Leadership (302)

- Presidents can exercise leadership by increasing public attention to particular issues

- Presidency transforms it occupants

                                The Power to Persuade (303)

- Must be chief executive and persuade country that his actions are correct and should be carried out without strife

- Must have will for power, use will to set agenda for nation

 

The President and Public Opinion (304)

-          Executive privilege – An assertion of the presidential power that reasons that the president can withhold information requested by the courts in matters relating to his office.

-          U.S. v. Nixon (1974) – The Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional absolute executive privilege that would allow a president to refuse to comply with a court order to produce information needed in a criminal trial.

-          President = symbol of the nation, Watergate/Nixon shows that corruption can exist at the highest levels of government     à Mistrust of government rampant

                                                à Ethics and campaign finance laws tightened

                                                à America’s optimism bruised

 

Going Public (305)

-          T.R. (1901-09) the “bully pulpit”

-          “going public” – president goes over the members of Congress to gain support from the people, who can then place pressure on their elected officials in Washington/direct, presidential appeals (i.e. Bill Clinton on Nightline)

 

Presidential Approval Ratings (306)

-          Pres has best chance of convincing Congress to follow his policy lead when his public opinion ratings are high

-          Popularity follows a cyclical pattern, peaking at the beginning of the presidential term

-          Generally presidential popularity wanes

-          Experience (wars, Sept. 11) increase approval ratings

-          Some Presidents launch bold international initiatives to distract critics of their personal or domestics problems to enhance their popularity w/the public

-          Direct links between presidential popularity and policy influence is questionable

-          President – a symbol of the nation, a political organizer, and a moral teacher