The
Executive
Branch
• A president's hardest task is not to do
what is right but to know what is right.”
• Lyndon B. Johnson
Great Expectations
• Consider these statements…
– The president must live up to the expectations
of the American people to ensure peace,
prosperity, and security.
– Americans want to believe in a powerful
president but at the same time do not like a
concentration of power.
Qualifications and Terms
• Must be:
– 35 years old
– Natural-born citizen
– 14 years as resident
• Terms of Office:
– 4 years
– May serve 2 terms or 10 years
• "Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be
president but they don't want them to
become politicians in the process.“
• John F. Kennedy
Constitutional Powers
• The Constitution says little about
presidential power.
– Presidents share executive, legislative, and
judicial power with other branches of
government.
– The framers placed checks on powers they
believed to be most dangerous while
protecting the general spheres of authority
from encroachment.
The Expansion of Power
• Today presidential power is greater than the
Constitution suggests.
• Many presidents enlarged the power of the
presidency by expanding the president’s
responsibilities and political resources.
• In the 1950s and 1960s scholars tended to favor
the idea of a strong presidency.
– After the abuses of power during the Vietnam War
and Watergate, scholars argued that the presidency
had become too powerful for the good of the nation.
– Weaker presidents have followed Nixon evoking the
desire on the part of some for a stronger presidency.
Formal Presidential Powers
Found in Constitution (Article II)
• Executing (carrying out) laws; veto laws
• Commander-in-chief
• Negotiates/makes treaties
• Appoint federal justices and judges
• Appoints ambassadors and foreign policy officials
• Fill vacant government posts when the Senate is in recess
• May pardon individuals
• Recognizes nations
• Receives ambassadors and other heads of state
• May convene and/or adjourn both houses of Congress
• Must give message to Congress from time to time
– Has become the State of the Union Address`
Informal Presidential Powers
Not in found in the U.S. Constitution
• The “First Citizen” • Crisis manager
– National Spokesman • Has access to expert
• Makes executive orders knowledge and expertise
and agreements • De facto political party
– Does not have to be leader
approved by Congress!
• Recognized as global
• Access to media leader
• Sets domestic/economic • Conducts foreign policy
agenda initiative
• Sets foreign policy • Meets with world leaders
agenda
• Builds coalitions with
• Helps to set and guide international community
legislative agenda
• FYI…this is not a finite
list! There are many
more!
In Other Words…
Running the Government
Commander in Chief
Diplomatic Powers
Economic Management
Presidential Powers
1. Chief Executive/Running the Government
– Officially in charge of the 3 million-plus executive
branch employees
2. Commander in Chief
– In charge of armed forces
3. Chief Diplomat
– Deals with foreign governments
4. Chief Legislator/Economic Management
– Sets agenda and budget
– “The Buck stops here”
Running the Government: The
Chief Executive
• One of the president’s most important roles
is presiding over the administration of
government.
• One of the resources for controlling this
bureaucracy is the presidential power to
appoint top-level administrators.
– Presidents have recently taken more interest
in the regulations issued by agencies, thus
centralizing decision-making in the White
House.
Commander in Chief
• The framers made the president the
commander in chief of the armed forces.
• As such he is the commander in chief of
more than 1.5 million uniformed men and
women.
Chief Diplomat
• The Constitution allocates certain national
security powers to the president.
• He alone extends diplomatic recognition,
negotiates treaties, and negotiates
executive agreements with heads of
foreign governments.
• The president must try to lead America’s
allies on matters of economics and
defense.
Chief Legislator
• The president is the nation’s key agenda builder;
what the administration wants strongly
influences the parameters of debate.
– In general, presidential legislative skill must compete
with other factors that affect congressional voting
behavior.
• Presidential legislative skills include bargaining,
making personal appeals, consulting with
Congress, setting priorities, exploiting
“honeymoon” periods, and structuring
congressional votes.
• “Presidents do make mistakes, but the
immortal Dante tells us that divine
justice weighs the sins of the cold-
blooded and the sins of the warm-
hearted in different scales.”
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “Few men in our history have ever
obtained the Presidency by planning to
obtain it.”
• James A. Garfield
Presidential Approval
• The higher the president stands in the polls, the
easier it is to persuade others to support
presidential initiatives.
– The president’s standing in the polls is
monitored closely.
– Presidents frequently do not have
widespread support.
• Public approval of the president sometimes
reacts to rally events and takes sudden jumps.
• The criteria on which the public evaluates
presidents are open to many interpretations.
Presidential Approval
• Presidential approval is the product of many
factors including the predisposition of many
people to support the president, political party
identification, and “honeymoon” periods.
– Changes in approval levels appear to reflect
the public’s evaluation of how the president
is handling policy.
– Citizens seem to focus on the president’s
efforts and stands on issues rather than on
personality or simply how presidential policies
affect them.
Checks and Balances to Know
• Presidential Check • Congressional
on Legislative Checks on
Branch Executive Branch
• Presidential Check • Judicial Checks on
on Judicial Executive Branch
Branches
Checks and Balances to Know
• Executive Check on Legislative Branch
– Veto
• Executive Check on Judicial Branch
– Nominations of Federal Judges
• Legislative Checks on Executive Branch
– Refusal to pass bill
– Overriding a Veto
– Impeachment and Conviction
– Refusal to approve Presidential appointees
– Refusal to ratify treaty
– May also conduct investigations
• (Special Counselors Ken Starr and Patrick Fitzsimmons)
• Judicial Checks on Executive Branch
– Declaration of presidential acts as unconstitutional
• Judicial Review
Congress and the President
• In recent years, Congress has challenged presidents on
all fronts. Congress has a central constitutional role in
making national security policy.
– Congress can refuse to provide authorizations
and appropriations for presidential actions.
– Congress’s role has typically been overseeing of
the executive rather than initiation of policy.
– It is less involved in national security policy than
in domestic policy.
• The typical member of Congress, however, supports the
president on roll call votes about national security only
slightly more than half the time
• “People in the media say they must
look at the president with a
microscope. Now, I don't mind a
microscope, but boy, when they use a
proctoscope, that's going too far.”
• Richard Nixon
22nd Amendment
• Limits presidents to 2 terms or 10 years
– “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more
than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or
acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which
some other person was elected President shall be elected to the
office of the President more than once."
• Criticism sometimes made of the 22nd
Amendment is that it can seriously erode a
second-term president's power and influence.
• Difficulties have been faced by every President
during their second terms since the amendment's
ratification.
– Such a president is often referred to as a lame duck.
Lame Duck
• A “lame duck” is an elected
official who loses political power
or is no longer responsive to the
electorate as a result of:
– a term limit which keeps him from
running for that particular office
again,
– losing an election
– the elimination of the official's
office
• Lame duck politicians continue
to hold office until the end of the
their term.
• “I have come to the conclusion that the
major part of the work of a President is
to increase the gate receipts of
expositions and fairs and bring tourists
to town.”
• William Howard Taft
25th Amendment
Presidential Succession and Disability
• In case of death or resignation
1. Vice-President takes over
2. Speaker of House
3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
4. Cabinet secretaries (in order of creation)
• In case of disability
– President signs away authority to VP
– If VP and majority of cabinet find
President “unfit” they can take power
• President Palmer on “24”
• Second Season
Also in 25th Amendment
• Vice-Presidential Succession and
Disability
– President nominates new candidate
– Nominee confirmed by majority of both
houses
• Nixon selected Senator Gerald Ford as the Vice-
President
• President Ford selected Nelson Rockefeller as his
Vice-President
"[The Vice Presidency] is the most
insignificant office that ever the invention
of man contrived or his imagination
conceived."
John Adams, 1st Vice President
The Vice-Presidency
• The Vice President must be a natural-born citizen
of the United States, at least thirty-five years of
age and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years.
– The Constitution also forbids the vice president from
being from the same state as the president
• The Twelfth Amendment to the United States
Constitution requires vice presidents to meet the
same requirements as presidents.
– For example the 22nd amendment limits presidents to
being elected to only two terms, so a former 2-term
president CAN NOT be elected as vice-president.
“Look at all the Vice Presidents
in history. Where are they?
They were about as useful as a
cow's fifth teat."
- Harry S. Truman
The “really dumb” Original Plan
• Under the original terms of the Constitution,
the members of the U.S. Electoral College
voted only for office of President rather
than for both President and Vice President.
• The person receiving the greatest number
of votes (provided that such a number was
a majority of electors) would be President,
while the individual who was in second
place became Vice President.
“Democracy means that
anyone can grow up to be
president, and anyone who
doesn't grow up can be vice
president.”
Johnny Carson
And now the “Really dumb” results
• In the election of 1796 Federalist John Adams
came in first, and Democratic-Republican Thomas
Jefferson came second.
– Thus, the President and Vice President were from
different parties.
• An even greater problem occurred in the election
of 1800, when Democratic-Republicans Jefferson
and Aaron Burr tied the vote.
– While it was intended that Jefferson was the
Presidential contender and Burr was the Vice
Presidential one, the electors did not and could not
differentiate between the two under the system of the
time.
– After 35 unsuccessful votes in the U.S. House of
Representatives, Thomas Jefferson finally won on the
36th ballot and Burr became Vice President.
The average vice-president is a
form of executive fungus that
attaches itself to a desk. On a
boat this growth would be
called a barnacle.
Fred Allen
The 12th Amendment
• The tumultuous affair led to the adoption of
the Twelfth amendment in 1804, which
directed the electors to use separate ballots
to vote for the President and Vice
President.
• While this solved the problem at hand, it
ultimately had the effect of lowering the
prestige of the Vice Presidency, as the Vice
President was no longer the second choice
for President.
The Vice-Presidency is sort of
like the last cookie on the
plate. Everybody insists he
won't take it, but somebody
always does.”
Bill Vaughan
The 25th Amendment
• The 25th Amendment establishes Vice-
Presidential Succession on account of
death, resignation, or cases of disability
– President nominates new candidate
– Nominee confirmed by majority of both houses
• Nixon selected Senator Gerald Ford as the Vice-
President
• President Ford selected Nelson Rockefeller as his
Vice-President
“The vice presidency isn't worth
a pitcher of warm…[spit]."
John Nance Garner
"I do not propose to be
buried until I am really
dead."
Daniel Webster
On not accepting the Vice
Presidency
Selecting a Vice President
• Presidents have used several techniques
when selecting their running mates
• Historically, they have usually chosen
someone who “balances the ticket”
– Region
– Age
– Religion
– Charisma
– Experience
Selecting a Vice President
• More recently Presidents Bill Clinton and George
W. Bush have gone against this tradition
• Instead they have selected a running mate with
their own political experience and knowledge
– Someone who could actually BE the president if called
upon
– For example, Al Gore is from a southern state like
Clinton and therefore did not balance the ticket in
1992 and 1996
– On the same note, VP Cheney is actually from Texas
just like President Bush, but Bush selected him
anyway (He had to establish residency in Wyoming to
qualify)
"If you give me a week, I might
think of one."
Dwight Eisenhower
In response to a reporters question about a major policy
contributed by then vice president Richard Nixon.
• “With me it is exceptionally true that
the Presidency is no bed of roses.
• James K. Polk
The Role of the President in
Law Making
• He can take a bill that has passed both side of
Congress and:
1. Sign it into law
2. Let it become law (if Congress is in
session)
3. Veto it
4. Pocket veto (if Congress is not in
session)
** Congress can override presidential veto with a
2/3 vote of each house
Line Item Veto
• The 1996 line-item veto law allowed the
president to pencil-out specific spending items
approved by the Congress.
• It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court 1998, ruling that Congress did not have
the authority to hand that power to the president.
• The 6-3 ruling said that the Constitution gives a
president only two choices: either sign
legislation or send it back to Congress.
Line Item Veto
• The 1996 line-item veto law allowed the
president to pencil-out specific spending items
approved by the Congress.
• It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court 1998, ruling that Congress did not have
the authority to hand that power to the president.
• The 6-3 ruling said that the Constitution gives a
president only two choices: either sign
legislation or send it back to Congress.
• “My father was not a failure. After all,
he was the father of a president of the
United States.”
• Harry S. Truman
Alexander Hamilton’s View of the
Presidency
• Hamilton proposed a president who would be
elected for life, "on good behavior."
– That idea went nowhere as most delegate were
fearful of a powerful monarch-like executive
• Hamilton vigorously defended the strong-
executive plan in the essays that became known
as The Federalist Papers. (Federalist 70)
– "Energy in the executive is a leading character in the
definition of good government,"
19th Century Presidents
• Dominated by Congress
• Exceptions:
– Washington
• Gave Presidency Legitimacy
– Jackson
• First President to expand the powers of the
Presidency
– Lincoln
• Set the foundations for the modern Presidency
20th Century Presidents
• Extremely powerful •The Media
– Began with TR and -More attention to
FDR president
• What Caused This? •Weak Congresses
– The Great -Infighting and
Depression bipartisanship
• New Deal legislation
•Other ideas…?
– The Cold War
• National Security
issues
• “Being president is like being a jackass in
a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to
stand there and take it.”
• Lyndon B. Johnson
Two Modern Views of the
Presidency
1. The Imperial presidency
• Rossiter and Schlesinger articles
• Can be defined, as the use (or misuse!) of
discretionary power by the Chief Executive
– Categorized by the large staffs of most modern
presidents
• Comparisons to the royal courts of Europe
– Emphasis on the executive branch replacing
Congress as “the most powerful branch
• Hamilton would have LOVED this!
– Also includes the decline in importance of the cabinet
Two “Imperial” Presidents
• Richard Nixon and Ronald
Reagan both pushed the limits
of the presidency
– Both won huge 2nd term elections
– Congress took the back seat in
power to both men
– Watergate ended this for Nixon,
but Iran-Contra had little effect on
Reagan’s imperial presidency
Examples of the Imperial
Presidency:
• Congress has ceded its budget-making
authority to the president.
• Presidents make agreements with foreign
nations without congressional approval by
substituting executive agreements for treaties
which required the approval of the Senate.
• The Commander-in-Chief role has also been
expanded even though Congress is empowered
to declare war.
– Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Presidential Power Today
• Some of the most noteworthy presidents in the
past several decades century successfully
advocated substantial increases in the role
of the national government.
– All seven of the presidents since Lyndon Johnson
have championed constraints on government and
limits on spending.
• FYI…
– It has been the president more often than Congress
who has said “no” to government growth.
Presidents and the Press
• Presidents do not directly reach the American
people on a daily basis.
– The press is the principal intermediary between the
president and the public, and relations with the press
are an important aspect of the president’s efforts to
lead public opinion.
• Presidents and the press tend to be in
conflict.
– The White House monitors the media closely and
tries to encourage the media to project a positive
image of the president.
The President and the Press
• The person who most often deals directly
with the press is the president’s press
secretary and the best-known interaction
between the president and the press is the
presidential press conference.
– Press conferences are not very useful means
of eliciting information. Most of the news
coverage of the White House involves the
most visible layer of presidents’ personal and
official activities rather than in the substance
of policies.
The President and the Press
• News coverage of the presidency often tends to
emphasize the negative and over the past
twenty years journalists have become more
active in setting a negative tone for their stories.
• However, presidents have certain advantages
in dealing with the press, including an aura of
dignity and deference and the ability of the White
House to largely control the environment in
which the president meets the press.
Watergate
• Watergate brought a temporary halt to the
"imperial presidency" and the growth of the
institutional presidential power
• Over the president's veto, Congress enacted the
War Powers Act (1973), which required future
presidents to obtain authorization from Congress
to engage U.S. forces in foreign combat for more
than 90 days.
– Under the Act, a president who orders troops into
action abroad must report the reason for this action to
Congress within 48 hours.
Two Modern Views of the
Presidency
2. The Institutional presidency (Neustadt article)
– The role of each new president in organizing and
managing the Executive Branch
– Includes the:
• Executive Office of the President (EOP)
• The White House Staff
– Chief of Staff as gatekeeper
– The Cabinet
– Most modern presidents have attempted to change
the Executive Office of the Presidency by adding new
offices and employees OR deleting or firing
employees
Parts of the Executive Branch
President
Independent Agencies, Boards
Executive Office
& Commissions
of the President
Includes White House Staff
Cabinet Departments
AKA the
Executive Branch Departments
White House 2. Circular
Cabinet
Structures
White House EOP
1. Staff
President
Agencies
Pyramid
President
Independent
Agencies
White House Staff
3. Ad Hoc
Ex. Departments No real format.
and agencies Access is limited or granted
by president or top aids on a
case by case or “need to
know” manner.
Important Acts and Cases
• Federalist 70
• Budget Reform Act of 1974
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• War Powers Act
• NAFTA
• Panama Canal Treaty
• US v Nixon
• “You really have to experience the
feeling of being with the president in
the oval office. . . . It's a disease I came
to call Ovalitis.”
• Jimmy Carter
The War Powers Act
• Presidents have customarily made short-term military
commitments of troops or naval vessels that have
occasionally become long-term (Korea and Vietnam).
• The War Powers Resolution (1973) required presidents to
consult with Congress before using military force and
mandated the withdrawal of forces after sixty days
unless Congress declared war or granted an
extension.
– The War Powers Resolution has not been a success and may be
considered a legislative veto and a violation of the doctrine of
separation of powers.
• Congress has found it difficult to challenge
the president.
United States v Nixon (1974)
• During the height of the Watergate scandal
President Nixon asserted that he was immune
from a subpoena for his personal White House
tapes claiming "executive privilege“.
– The right to withhold information from other
government branches to preserve confidential
communications within the executive branch
or to secure the national interest.
Importance of Case
• The Court said “No!!”
• It did grant that there was a limited executive
privilege in areas of military or diplomatic
affairs, but disagreed with Mr. Nixon claiming
"the fundamental demands of due process of
law in the fair administration of justice."
– Therefore, the president must obey the subpoena and
produce the tapes and documents.
• Nixon resigned shortly after the release of the
tapes.
• “No easy problems ever come to the
President of the United States. If they
are easy to solve, somebody else has
solved them.”
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Electoral College Review
• The Electoral College is the assembly that
formally elects the President and Vice
President
– Our votes simply elect the electors that vote
for the President
• Number of electoral votes
– 538 Total
– 270 Needed to get elected
Electoral College (continued)
• Electoral votes are divided up by state
• Number of state electoral votes is equal to
the state’s number of House
Representatives and Senators
– Exception:
– Washington, DC gets 3 Votes
Electors Review
• How selected?
– Varies with each state
– Usually selected by state parties or
committees
• Who are they?
– Party loyalists
– Party leaders
– Friends of the candidate
• I'm President of the United States, and
I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!””
• George Herbert Walker Bush
Contingency Election
for President
• If one candidate does not win 270 votes, it
goes to the House of Representatives
• Top three candidates receiving electoral
votes
• Each state has one vote
• Need a majority of states to elect the
President
Contingency Election
for Vice-President
• Goes to the Senate for a vote
• Two candidates with the most electoral
vote compete
• Members vote as individuals rather than
states.
Electoral College Criticism
• Faithless Electors
– Electors may change their votes
– Some state laws do not allow this
• Winner take all system
– Gives big states an advantage
– Encourages fraud
– Enhances power of third party candidates to
split the vote (Green’s and Nader in 2000)
Electoral College Criticism
(continued)
• All states get at least three electoral votes
– Gives small states more power relative to their
population
• Uncertainty of the Winner Winning
– Winner of the popular vote does not equal winner of
the electoral vote
• Contingency Election Procedures
– Deadlock in the House
– Increased power of third parties to control election
Virtues of the Electoral College
• It is a Proven System
• Makes Campaigns More Manageable
• Discourages Election Fraud
• Preserves Moderate Two-Party System
Link to Electoral College Website
http://www.270towin.com/
• “[The President] should be supported or opposed exactly to
the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad
conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal,
able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be
full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means
that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does
wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other
attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the
President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or
wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally
treasonable to the American public.”
• Theodore Roosevelt
Read Chapter 8 and 9!!