Mobirise

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MODULE 5

Objectives:
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:

  1. Explain the Electoral College and the ways it can produce victory by national popular vote losers. 
  2. Explain key sources of presidential power, and the reasons those have expanded over time. 
  3. Identify key organizations that help the president
  4. Create strategies in the veto game.
  5. Identify and explain the War Powers Resolution
  6. Create strategies for unilateral presidential action using executive orders, executive agreements, war powers and other tools to bypass Congress.

RELEVANCE: 
The president is the most visible and powerful individual in the American political system. It is vital that any student of American Government understand the power and role of the president.  

SUMMARY: 
The Framers’ ambivalence toward executive power has created a “gray area” in which the strength of the presidency is primarily determined by the individual skills of presidents and the support of the public. By using the powers of their office to the max, presidents attempt to shape public policy. In foreign policy, in particular, Presidents have succeeded at obtaining near dominance. But in many areas Congress and the Courts continue to constrain the President, sometimes pushing back successfully against efforts by Presidents to change the policy status quo. Harry S. Truman (President from 1945 to 1953) reflected that “Being President is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed.” And Theodore Roosevelt once told his relative Franklin (fists clenched) “Sometimes I wish I could be President and Congress too.” With enormous powers come even more enormous expectations. Presidents often struggle to fulfil those expectations in the face of a separation of powers system that limits presidential options, and their popularity often suffers as a result.  

OVERVIEW: In this topic we will address a series of puzzles about the presidency. First, how can someone when the presidency while winning fewer votes than some other candidate? The answer here will lie in understanding the workings of the Electoral College. Second, how presidents can (and cannot) use the veto to influence policy outcomes. Third, how the veto combined with presidential unilateral actions provides the president with substantial scope for action without involving Congress. And finally, why and how did the power of presidents increase substantially in the 20th century only to encounter substantial and consequential push-back from Congress and the Courts?

KEY PRESIDENTIAL UNILATERAL POWERS

President Theodore Roosevelt once vented “Sometimes I wish I could be President and Congress too.”

Congress (and the Courts) often have a capacity to check and balance the president. Which can frustrate the capacity of Presidents to do what they will. Over time Presidents have sought (with varying degrees of success) to be “President and Congress too.”

Stating the case for an expansive interpretation of his powers, Woodrow Wilson claimed “The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can.”

When presidents find their agendas frustrated in Congress, and their popularity insufficient to overcome the tenacity of their opponents, they often turn to unilateral action both in foreign and domestic policy. Barack Obama took to saying "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone" to describe his strategy of using these powers to seek action even when Congress is deadlocked.


Key unilateral powers include:

  • EXECUTIVE ORDERS 
    -  The president orders actions by the executive branch on the basis of delegated, inherent, or express powers.
  • ORDERS TO THE MILITARY
    - On the basis of the commander in chief power, and potential in conflict with the power of Congress to declare war. 
  • EXECUTIVE AGREEMENTS
     - Agreements and treaties with other nations that do not require Senate ratification.
  • RECESS APPOINTMENTS
    - Appointment to offices that normally require Senate approval during a Congressional recess.
  • SIGNING STATEMENTS
    - Interpretations of signed laws that may aim to limit or alter the interpretation or meaning of parts of those laws.

ASSIGNMENTS QUIZ GO TO PAGE 2

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