M08 OCON1301 11 SE C08 · The modern media, used by successful presidents to help advance their agendas, have brought us closer to our presidents and made them seem more human, a

The Presidency

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When Ronald Reagan died on June 5,2004, many Americans, first in California andthen in Washington, D.C., lined up for hours topay their respects to the man who had been thefortieth president of the United States. Manypeople were able to see, for the first time inrecent memory, the grandeur of a presidentialstate funeral. Reagan was the first president tolie in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol sinceLyndon B. Johnson died in January 1973, andone of only nine American presidents toreceive that honor.

Presidential funerals underscore the esteemwith which most Americans accord the officeof the president, regardless of its occupant. Justbefore the first president, George Washington,died, he made it known that he wanted hisburial to be a quiet one, “without parade orfuneral oration.” He also asked that he not beburied for three days; at that time, it was notwithout precedent to make this kind of requestout of fear of being buried alive. Despite these

requests, Washington’s funeral was a stateoccasion as hundreds of soldiers, with theirrifles held backward, marched to MountVernon, Virginia, where he was interred. Acrossthe nation, imitation funerals were held, andthe military wore black armbands for sixmonths.1

When President Abraham Lincoln wasassassinated in 1865, his funeral became anationwide event. He laid in state in the EastRoom of the White House, where more than25,000 mourners came to pay their respects.The room was draped in black cloth, and twodozen Union soldiers formed an honor guard.Following the funeral, a parade to the Capitolwas held in Washington, D.C. Thousands offree blacks escorted the body to the Rotunda,where Lincoln laid in state for another day.The body of the deceased president thenembarked on a national train tour toSpringfield, Illinois, allowing Americansacross the country an opportunity to grieve.

The State Constitution and The Legislative Branch of Government 265

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What Should I Know About . . .After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

8.1 Trace the development of the presidency and theprovisions for choosing and replacing presidents,p. 266.

8.2 Identify and describe the constitutional powersof the president, p. 272.

8.3 Evaluate the development and expansion ofpresidential power, p. 279.

8.4 Outline the structure of the presidentialestablishment and the functions of each of itscomponents, p. 284.

8.5 Explain the concept of presidential leadership,and analyze the importance of public opinion,p. 286.

8.6 Assess the president’s role as policy maker, p. 290.

Today, one of the first things a president isasked to do upon taking office is to considerfuneral plans. The military has a 138-page longbook devoted to the kind of ceremony andtraditions that were so evident in the Reaganfuneral: a horse-drawn caisson; a riderless horsewith boots hung backward in the stirrups toindicate that the deceased will ride no more;a twenty-one-gun salute; and a flyover bymilitary aircraft. Each president’s family,however, has personalized their private, yetalso public opportunity to mourn. The Reaganfamily, for example, filed a 300-page plan forthe funeral in 1989 and updated it regularly.Former president Gerald R. Ford filed a planthat was implemented after his death in 2006.Presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush havealso filed formal plans; Bill Clinton, George W.Bush, and Barack Obama have yet to do so.

The Reagan funeral also created a nationaltime-out from the news of war, and evenpresidential campaigns were halted in respect

for the deceased president. One historiancommented that the event gave Americans theopportunity to “rediscover . . . what holds ustogether instead of what pulls us apart.”2 This isoften the role of presidents—in life or in death.

Presidential funerals have been occasions for national mourning since the death of the first president, GeorgeWashington. At left, the nation mourns President Abraham Lincoln, the first American president to beassassinated. At right, former presidents and vice presidents and their wives attend a funeral service for PresidentRonald Reagan in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. prior to his interment in California.

266 CHAPTER 8 The Presidency

The authority granted to the president by the U.S. Constitution and through sub-sequent congressional legislation makes it a position with awesome power andresponsibility. Not only did the Framers not envision such a powerful role forthe president, but they could not have foreseen the skepticism with which many

presidential actions are now greeted in the press, on talk radio, and on the Internet.The modern media, used by successful presidents to help advance their agendas,

have brought us closer to our presidents and made them seem more human, a mixedblessing for those trying to lead. Only two photographs exist of President Franklin D.Roosevelt in a wheelchair; his paralysis was a closely guarded secret. Five decadeslater, presidential candidate Bill Clinton was asked on national TV what kind ofunderwear he preferred (briefs).

Public opinion and confidence are key components of a president’s ability to gethis programs adopted and his vision of the nation implemented. As one politicalscientist has noted, the president’s power often rests on his power to persuade.3 Topersuade, he not only must be able to forge links with members of Congress, but healso must have the support of the American people and the respect of foreign leaders.

The tension between public expectations about the presidency and the formalpowers of the president permeate our discussion of how the office has evolved fromits humble origins in Article II of the Constitution to its current stature. In this chapter:

■ First, we will examine the roots of the office of president of the United States anddiscuss how the Framers created a chief executive officer for the new nation.

■ Second, we will discuss the constitutional powers of the president.

■ Third, we will explore the development and expansion of presidential powerand a more personalized presidency.

■ Fourth, we will investigate the development of the presidential establishment,the myriad departments, special assistants, and advisers who help the president.

■ Fifth, we will examine presidential leadership and the importance of publicopinion, including the effect that public opinion has on the American presidency.

■ Finally, we will explore the president’s role as policy maker.

ROOTS OF the Office of President of the United States

8.1 . . . Trace the development of the presidency and the provisions forchoosing and replacing presidents.

The earliest example of executive power in the colonies was the position of royal gov-ernor. These appointees of the king of England governed each colony and normallywere entrusted with the “powers of appointment, military command, expenditure,and—within limitations—pardon, as well as with large powers in connection with thepowers of law making.”4 Royal governors often found themselves at odds withthe colonists and especially with elected colonial legislatures. As representatives of thecrown, the governors were distrusted and disdained by the people, many of whom had

Roots of the Office of President of the United States 267

fled from Great Britain to escape royal domination. Others, generations removedfrom England, no longer felt strong ties to the king and his power over them.

When the colonists declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, theirdistrust of a strong chief executive remained. Most state constitutions reduced theonce-powerful office of governor to a symbolic post elected annually by the legislature.However, some states did entrust wider powers to their chief executives. The governorof New York, for example, was elected directly by the people. Perhaps because he thenwas accountable to the people, he was given the power to pardon, the duty to faithfullyexecute the laws, and the power to act as commander in chief of the state militia.

Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no executive branch of govern-ment; the eighteen different men who served as the president of the ContinentalCongress of the United States of America were president in name only—they held noactual authority or power in the new nation. When the delegates to the ConstitutionalConvention met in Philadelphia to fashion a new government, there was littledissention about the need for an executive branch to implement the laws made byCongress. Although some delegates suggested there should be multiple executives,eventually the Framers agreed that executive authority should be vested in one person.This agreement was relatively seamless because the Framers were sure that GeorgeWashington—whom they had trusted with their lives during the RevolutionaryWar—would become the first president of the new nation.

The Framers also had no problem in agreeing on a title for the new office. Borrowingfrom the title used at several American colleges and universities, the Framers called thenew chief executive the president. How the president was to be chosen and by whom wasa major stumbling block. James Wilson of Philadelphia suggested a president who wouldbe elected by the people and “independent of the legislature.” Wilson also suggested giv-ing the executive an absolute veto over the acts of Congress. “Without such a defense,” hewrote, “the legislature can at any moment sink it [the executive] into non-existence.”5

The manner of the president’s election haunted the Framers for some time, andtheir solution to the dilemma—the creation of the Electoral College—is described indetail in chapter 13. We leave the resolution of that issue aside for now and turninstead to details of the issues the Framers resolved quickly.

PresidentialQualifications andTerms of OfficeThe Constitution requires that thepresident (and the vice president,whose major function is to succeedthe president in the event of his deathor disability) be a natural-born citizenof the United States, at least thirty-five years old, and a resident of theUnited States for at least fourteenyears. In the 1700s, those engaged ininternational diplomacy were oftenout of the country for substantial peri-ods of time, and the Framers wantedto make sure that prospective presi-dents spent significant time on thiscountry’s shores before running for itshighest elective office. While there isno constitutional bar to a woman or Ph

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Who serves as president of the United States? Before Barack Obama, all of the peoplewho served as president were white men. Here, five former presidents—Richard M.Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush—gather tocelebrate the opening of the Reagan Presidential Library in 1991.


Table 8.1 Who were the U.S. presidents?

PresidentPlace of

BirthHigher

Education OccupationYears in

CongressYears as

GovernorYears as Vice

PresidentAge at Becoming

President

George Washington VA William & Mary Farmer/surveyor 2 0 0 57John Adams MA Harvard Farmer/lawyer 5 0 4 61Thomas Jefferson VA William & Mary Farmer/lawyer 5 3 4 58James Madison VA Princeton Farmer 15 0 0 58James Monroe VA William & Mary Farmer/lawyer 7 4 0 59John Quincy Adams MA Harvard Lawyer 0a 0 0 58Andrew Jackson SC None Lawyer 4 0 0 62Martin Van Buren NY None Lawyer 8 0 4 55William H. Harrison VA Hampden-Sydney Military 0 0 0 68John Tyler VA William & Mary Lawyer 12 2 0 51James K. Polk NC North Carolina Lawyer 14 3 0 50Zachary Taylor VA None Military 0 0 0 65Millard Fillmore NY None Lawyer 8 0 1 50Franklin Pierce NH Bowdoin Lawyer 9 0 0 48James Buchanan PA Dickinson Lawyer 20 0 0 65Abraham Lincoln KY None Lawyer 2 0 0 52Andrew Johnson NC None Tailor 14 4 0 57Ulysses S. Grant OH West Point Military 0 0 0 47Rutherford B. Hayes OH Kenyon Lawyer 3 6 0 55James A. Garfield OH Williams Educator/lawyer 18 0 0 50Chester A. Arthur VT Union Lawyer 0 0 1 51Grover Cleveland NJ None Lawyer 0 2 0 48Benjamin Harrison OH Miami (Ohio) Lawyer 6 0 0 56Grover Cleveland NJ None Lawyer 0 2 0 53William McKinley OH Allegheny Lawyer 14 4 0 54Theodore Roosevelt NY Harvard Lawyer/author 0 2 1 43William H. Taft OH Yale Lawyer 0 0 0 52Woodrow Wilson VA Princeton Educator 0 2 0 56Warren G. Harding OH Ohio Central Newspaper editor 6 0 0 56Calvin Coolidge VT Amherst Lawyer 0 2 3 51Herbert Hoover IA Stanford Engineer 0 0 0 55Franklin D. Roosevelt NY Harvard/Columbia Lawyer 0 4 0 49Harry S Truman MO None Clerk/store owner 10 0 0 61Dwight D. Eisenhower TX West Point Military 0 0 0 63John F. Kennedy MA Harvard Journalist 14 0 0 43Lyndon B. Johnson TX Texas State Educator 24 0 3 55Richard M. Nixon CA Whittier/Duke Lawyer 6 0 8 56Gerald R. Ford NE Michigan/Yale Lawyer 25 0 2 61Jimmy Carter GA Naval Academy Farmer/business

owner0 4 0 52

Ronald Reagan IL Eureka Actor 0 8 0 69George Bush MA Yale Business owner 4 0 8 64Bill Clinton AR Georgetown/Yale Lawyer 0 12 0 46George W. Bush CT Yale/Harvard Business owner 0 6 0 54Barack Obama HI Columbia/Harvard Community

organizer3 0 0 48

a Adams served in the U.S. House for six years after leaving the presidency.Source: Adapted from Presidential Elections Since 1789, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1987), 4; Norman Thomas, Joseph Pika, and Richard Watson, The Politics of the Presidency, 3rd ed.(Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1993), 490; Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, eds., Vital Statistics on American Politics 2001–2002 (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001). Updated by the authors.

member of a minority group seeking the presidency, Barack Obama is the only non-white male to be elected to this office. (To learn more about the presidents, see Table 8.1.)

Although only two of the last six presidents failed to win election to a secondterm, at one time the length of a president’s term was controversial. Four-, seven-, andeleven-year terms with no eligibility for reelection were suggested by various delegatesto the Constitutional Convention. The Framers ultimately reached agreement on afour-year term with eligibility for reelection.

The first president, George Washington(1789–1797), sought reelection only once, and atwo-term limit for presidents became traditional.Although Ulysses S. Grant unsuccessfully sought athird term, the two terms established by Washing-ton remained the standard for 150 years, avoidingthe Framers’ much-feared “constitutional monarch,”a perpetually reelected tyrant. In the 1930s and1940s, however, Franklin D. Roosevelt ran success-fully in four elections as Americans fought first theGreat Depression and then World War II. DespiteRoosevelt’s popularity, negative reaction to his longtenure in office ultimately led to passage (and ratifi-cation in 1951) of the Twenty-Second Amend-ment. It limits presidents to two four-year terms.A vice president who succeeds a president due todeath, resignation, or impeachment is eligible for atotal of ten years in office: two years of a president’sremaining term and two elected terms, or more thantwo years of a president’s term followed by oneelected term.

The Framers paid little attention to the office ofvice president beyond the need to have an immedi-ate official stand-in for the president. Initially, forexample, the vice president’s one and only functionwas to assume the office of president in the case ofthe death of the president or some other emergency.After further debate, the delegates made the vicepresident the presiding officer of the Senate (exceptin cases of presidential impeachment). They fearedthat if the Senate’s presiding officer were chosenfrom the Senate itself, one state would be short a representative.The vice president wasgiven the authority to vote in that body in the event of a tie.

During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was a staunch sup-porter of including a provision allowing for impeachment, the first step in a formalprocess to remove a specified official from office. He noted that “historically, the lackof power to impeach had necessitated recourse to assassination.”6 Not surprisingly,then, Franklin urged the rest of the delegates to formulate a legal mechanism toremove the president and vice president.

The impeachment provision ultimately included in Article II was adopted as acheck on the power of the president. As we discussed in detail in chapter 7, eachhouse of Congress was given a role to play in the impeachment process to assurethat the chief executive could be removed only for “Treason, Bribery, or other highCrimes and Misdemeanors.” The House is empowered to vote to impeach thepresident by a simple majority vote. The Senate then acts as a court of law and triesthe president for the charged offenses with the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Courtpresiding. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate on any count contained in thearticles of impeachment is necessary to remove the president from office. Only twopresidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been impeached by the House ofRepresentatives. Neither man, however, was removed from office by the Senate.

In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office rather than face thecertainty of impeachment, trial, and removal from office for his role in coveringup details about a break-in at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in theWatergate office complex. What came to be known simply as Watergate also pro-duced a major decision from the Supreme Court on the scope of what is termed


Presidential Term LimitsIn the United States, presidents are limited to two four-yearterms in office. This is not true everywhere. Presidential termsin office vary from country to country. And, some countries have additional restrictions on the presidency. The table shows the presidential term limits and special conditions present in various countries.

CountryLength of Term

Term Limits

Italy 7 years noneIceland 4 years noneMexico 6 years 1 termRussia 4 years 2 termsBrazil 4 years 2 terms

■ How long should a president’s term be?■ Why do some countries place limits on the number of terms

that a president can serve while others do not?■ Should the U.S. Constitution be amended to allow presidents

to serve more than two terms? Why or why not?

Twenty-Second AmendmentAdopted in 1951; prevents a presidentfrom serving more than two terms,or more than ten years if he came tooffice via the death, resignation, orimpeachment of his predecessor.impeachmentThe power delegated to the Houseof Representatives in the Constitu-tion to charge the president, vicepresident, or other “civil officers,”including federal judges, with“Treason, Bribery, or other highCrimes and Misdemeanors.” Thisis the first step in the constitutionalprocess of removing governmentofficials from office.


executive privilege. In U.S. v. Nixon (1974), the Supreme Court ruled unanimouslythat there was no overriding executive privilege that sanctioned the president’s refusalto comply with a court order to produce information for use in the trial of the Water-gate defendants. Since then, presidents have varied widely in their use of the claim ofexecutive privilege. President Bill Clinton asserted it several times, especially duringthe impeachment proceedings against him. President George W. Bush made suchclaims less frequently, instead often arguing that he and the vice president had whathe called “constitutional prerogatives.”7

Rules of SuccessionThrough 2010, eight presidents have died in office from illness or assassination.William H. Harrison was the first president to die in office—he caught a cold at hisinauguration in 1841 and died one month later. John Tyler thus became the first vicepresident to succeed to the presidency. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln became the firstpresident to be assassinated.

The Framers were aware that a system of orderly transfer of power was necessary;this was the primary reason they created the office of the vice president. To furtherclarify the order of presidential succession, in 1947, Congress passed the PresidentialSuccession Act, which lists—in order—those in line (after the vice president) to suc-ceed the president. (To learn more about the order of succession, see Table 8.2.)

executive privilegeAn implied presidential power thatallows the president to refuse to disclose information regarding confi-dential conversations or nationalsecurity to Congress or the judiciary.U.S. v. Nixon (1974)Supreme Court ruling on power ofthe president, holding that there isno absolute constitutional executiveprivilege allowing a president torefuse to comply with a court orderto produce information needed in acriminal trial.

Table 8.2 What is the presidential line of succession?

1. Vice President 10. Secretary of Commerce2. Speaker of the House 11. Secretary of Labor3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate 12. Secretary of Health and Human Services4. Secretary of State 13. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development5. Secretary of the Treasury 14. Secretary of Transportation6. Secretary of Defense 15. Secretary of Energy7. Attorney General 16. Secretary of Education8. Secretary of the Interior 17. Secretary of Veterans Affairs9. Secretary of Agriculture 18. Secretary of Homeland Security

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How often have presidents faced impeachment proceedings? Only two presidents, Andrew Johnson (left) and Bill Clinton (right) have beenformally impeached by the House and faced trial in the Senate. Richard M. Nixon (center) chose to resign from office rather than face certainimpeachment and conviction.


The Succession Act has never been used because there has always been a vicepresident to take over when a president died in office. The Twenty-Fifth Amend-ment, in fact, was added to the Constitution in 1967 to assure that this will continueto be the case. Should a vacancy occur in the office of the vice president, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment directs the president to appoint a new vice president, subject to theapproval (by a simple majority) of both houses of Congress. (To learn more, see TheLiving Constitution: Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Section 2.)

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment also contains a section that allows the vice presi-dent and a majority of the Cabinet (or some other body determined by Congress) todeem a president unable to fulfill his duties. It sets up a procedure to allow the vicepresident to become acting president if the president is incapacitated. The presidentalso voluntarily can relinquish his power. Twice, for example, President George W.Bush made Vice President Dick Cheney acting president while he underwentcolonoscopies.

Twenty-Fifth AmendmentAdopted in 1967 to establish proce-dures for filling vacancies in the officeof president and vice president as wellas providing for procedures to dealwith the disability of a president.

The Living ConstitutionWhenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, thePresident shall nominate a Vice President who shall take officeupon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

—TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT, SECTION 2

his clause of the Twenty-Fifth Amendmentallows a president to fill a vacancy in the office

of vice president with the consent of a simplemajority of both Houses of Congress. The purposeof this amendment, which also deals with vacanciesin the office of the president, was to remedy somestructural flaws in Article II. When thisamendment to the Constitution was proposed in1965 (it was ratified in 1967), seven vice presidentshad died in office and one had resigned. For over20 percent of the nation’s history there had been novice president to assume the office of the presidentin case of his death or infirmity. When John F.Kennedy was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon B.Johnson became president and the office of vicepresident was vacant. Since Johnson had suffered aheart attack as vice president, members of Congresswere anxious to remedy the problems that mightoccur should there be no vice president.

Richard M. Nixon followed Johnson as president,and during Nixon’s presidency, the office of the vicepresident became empty twice. First, Vice PresidentSpiro T. Agnew was forced to resign in the wakeof charges of bribe taking, corruption, and income-taxevasion while an elected official in Maryland. He was

T replaced by popular House Minority Leader GeraldR. Ford (R–MI), who had no trouble getting a major-ity vote in both houses of Congress to confirm hisnomination. When Nixon resigned rather than facesure impeachment, Ford became president andselected the former governor of New York, Nelson A.Rockefeller, to be his vice president.This chain ofevents set up for the first time in U.S. history a situa-tion in which neither the president nor the vice presi-dent had been elected to those positions.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS1. Why wasn’t the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

proposed until 1965? Why might a vice presidentbe more necessary today than in the past?

2. Is it appropriate in a representative democracy to ever have a situation where both the presidentand the vice president have not been popularlyelected?

3. What could be an alternative method by which aperson could become vice president in the eventof a vacancy? How would this method be animprovement over the current constitutionalprotocol?


The Constitutional Powers of the President8.2 . . . Identify and describe the constitutional powers of the president.

In contrast to Article I’s laundry list of enumerated powers for the Congress, Article IIdetails few presidential powers. Perhaps the most important section of Article II is its firstsentence: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States ofAmerica.”Nonetheless, the sum total of the president’s powers, enumerated below, allowshim to become a major player in the policy process.

The Appointment PowerTo help the president enforce laws passed by Congress, the Constitution authorizes himto appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, “Ambassadors, other public Min-isters and Consuls, judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the UnitedStates, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall beestablished by Law.” Although this section of the Constitution deals only with appoint-ments, behind that language is a powerful policy-making tool. The president has theauthority to make nearly 3,500 appointments to his administration (of which just over1,000 require Senate confirmation). He also has the power to remove many of hisappointees at will. In addition, he technically appoints more than 75,000 military per-sonnel. Many of these appointees are in positions to wield substantial authority over thecourse and direction of public policy. And, especially in the context of his ability to makeappointments to the federal courts, his influence can be felt far past his term of office.

It is not surprising, then, that selecting the right people is often one of a president’smost important tasks. Presidents look for a blend of loyalty, competence, and integrity.Identifying these qualities in people is a major challenge that every new president faces.Recent presidents have made an effort to create staffs that, in President Bill Clinton’s

words, look “more like America.”In the past, when a president for-

warded a nomination to the Senate forits approval, his selections traditionallywere given great respect—especiallythose for the Cabinet, an advisory groupselected by the president to help himmake decisions and execute the laws. Infact, until the Clinton administration,the vast majority (97 percent) of all pres-idential nominations were confirmed.8This is no longer the case, as investiga-tions into nominee’s pasts and politicalwrangling in the Senate can delay theapproval of nominees for months.

Delay or rejection of nominees canhave a major impact on the course of anadministration. Rejections leave a presi-dent without first choices, affect a presi-dent’s relationship with the Senate, andaffect how the president is perceived bythe public. One method presidents havefor persuading Congress to approve ordisapprove nominees quickly is to maketemporary appointments while Congressis in recess (thus, without congressionalapproval). For example, President Barack

CabinetThe formal body of presidentialadvisers who head the fifteen execu-tive departments. Presidents oftenadd others to this body of formaladvisers.

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How do presidents choose their political appointees? Presidents look for loyalty, hon-esty, and integrity when making appointments. Often they rely on friends and advisorsto fill vacant positions. Here Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obamacelebrate the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

The Constitutional Powers of the President 273

Obama’s threats to use recess appointments after Congress delayed confir-mation of sixty-three of his nominees led Congress to confirm twenty-sevennominees in one day.

The Power to Convene CongressThe Constitution requires the president to inform the Congress periodicallyof “the State of the Union,” and authorizes the president to convene eitherone or both houses of Congress on “extraordinary Occasions.” In FederalistNo. 77, Hamilton justified the latter by noting that because the Senate andthe chief executive enjoy concurrent powers to make treaties, “It might oftenbe necessary to call it together with a view to this object, when it would beunnecessary and improper to convene the House of Representatives.” Thepower to convene Congress was more important when Congress did not sitin nearly year-round sessions.

The Power to Make TreatiesThe president’s power to make treaties with foreign nations is checked bythe Constitution’s stipulation that all treaties must be approved by at leasttwo-thirds of the members of the Senate. The chief executive can also“receive ambassadors,” wording that has been interpreted to allow thepresident to recognize the existence of other nations.

Historically, the Senate ratifies about 90 percent of the treaties submitted to it by the president.9 Only twenty-one treaties that have beenput to a vote have been rejected, often under highly partisan circum-stances. Perhaps the most notable example of the Senate’s refusal to ratifya treaty was its defeat of the Treaty of Versailles submitted by PresidentWoodrow Wilson in 1919.The treaty was an agreement among the majornations to end World War I. At Wilson’s insistence, it also called for thecreation of the League of Nations—a precursor of the United Nations—to foster continued peace and international disarmament. In struggling togain international acceptance for the League, Wilson had taken Americansupport for granted. This was a dramatic miscalculation. Isolationists, led by SenatorHenry Cabot Lodge (R–MA), opposed U.S. participation in the League on the groundsthat the League would place the United States in the center of every major internationalconflict. Proponents countered that, League or no League, the United States hademerged from World War I as a world power and that membership in the League ofNations would enhance its new role. The vote in the Senate for ratification was veryclose, but the isolationists prevailed—the United States stayed out of the League, andWilson was devastated.

The Senate also may require substantial amendment of a treaty prior to its con-sent. When President Jimmy Carter proposed the controversial Panama Canal Treatyin 1977 to turn the canal over to Panama, for example, the Senate required severalconditions to be ironed out before approving the canal’s return.

Presidents may also “unsign” treaties, a practice often met with dismay from other sig-natories. For example, the George W. Bush administration formally withdrew its supportfor the International Criminal Court (ICC), the first permanent court to prosecute warcrimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. Critics of the treaty argued that itcould lead to politically motivated charges against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.10

When trade agreements are at issue, presidents often are forced to be mindful of thewishes of both houses of Congress. Congressional “fast track” authority protects a presi-dent’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with confidence that the accords will not bealtered by Congress. Trade agreements submitted to Congress under fast track proce-dures bar amendments and require an up or down vote in Congress within ninety daysof introduction.

Who helps the president to conduct foreignaffairs? The president has a large number of aideswho help him to craft foreign policy. These aidesare often held accountable for a president’s policy-making failures. Here, President George W. Bushquite literally shows Secretary of Defense DonaldRumsfeld the door following Republican losses inthe 2006 midterm elections. These defeats were atleast in part attributable to Rumsfeld’s failures inthe conduct of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Presidents also often try to get around the constitutional “advice and consent”of theSenate requirement for ratification of treaties and the congressional approval require-ment for trade agreements by entering into executive agreements, which allow thepresident to form secret and highly sensitive arrangements with foreign nations withoutSenate approval. Presidents have used these agreements since the days of George Wash-ington, and their use has been upheld by the courts. Although executive agreements arenot binding on subsequent administrations, since 1900 they have been used far morefrequently than treaties, further cementing the role of the president in foreign affairs.(To learn more about the president’s attempts to juggle relations with other nations, seePolitics Now: With Home Trouble, Obama Faces Hard Choices on Trips.)

Veto PowerPresidents can affect the policy process through the veto power, the authority to rejectbills passed by both houses of Congress. The threat of a presidential veto oftenprompts members of Congress to fashion legislation that they know will receive presi-dential acquiescence, if not support. Thus, simply threatening to veto legislation oftengives a president another way to influence law-making.

During the Constitutional Convention, proponents of a strong executive arguedthat the president should have an absolute and final veto over acts of Congress. Oppo-nents of this idea, including Benjamin Franklin, countered that in their home statesthe executive veto “was constantly made use of to extort money” from legislators.James Madison made the most compelling argument for a compromise on the issue:

Experience has proven a tendency in our governments to throw all power into the leg-islative vortex. The Executives of the States are in general little more than Ciphers, the

executive agreementsFormal international agreementsentered into by the president that donot require the advice and consent ofthe U.S. Senate.

With Home Trouble, Obama Faces Hard Choices on Trips

By Shaun Tandon

Critical Thinking Questions1. How does a visit from

another country’s headof state affectdiplomatic relations?

2. How does this articleillustrate the difficultiespresidents face inbalancing their manyroles?

3. Should midtermelections play a rolein determining apresident’s travelschedule? Why or why not?

June 5, 2010Agence France-Presse

www.afp.com Faced with mounting challenges at home, President Barack Obama will soon have tochoose between jamming foreign trips onto this year’s tightening schedule or neglectingkey U.S. partners.

Obama, who traveled overseas more than any other president in his first year, on Thurs-day called off a visit to Australia and Indonesia for the second time to focus on curbing amajor oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. . . .

Obama earlier delayed the Pacific trip to lead his top legislative priority of health carereform. His domestic calendar will remain busy, with his Democratic Party fighting to keepcontrol of Congress in November 2 elections.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if more of these foreign visits are canceled between now andthe mid-term elections,” said Brian Katulis, an expert on national security at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

“Sometimes I think foreign policy issues go over the heads of most ordinary Americansand they’re going to vote, it seems, on the bread-and-butter issues here at home,” he said.

But, even in an age of instant communications, Obama can send a powerful messagethat another nation is important when he heads overseas, Katulis said. . . .

Obama said Thursday he would head in November to India, which has warming tieswith the United States but where some policymakers worried Obama was too focused onfellow rising power China, which he visited last year, and Pakistan.

Obama is also committed to travel in November to back-to-back summits of the Groupof 20 economic powers in South Korea and of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperationforum in Japan. . . .

veto powerThe formal, constitutional authorityof the president to reject bills passedby both houses of Congress, thuspreventing them from becoming lawwithout further congressional action.


legislatures omnipotent. If no effectual check be devised for restraining the instabilityand encroachments of the latter, a revolution of some kind or other would be inevitable.11

In keeping with the system of checks and balances, then, the president was giventhe veto power, but only as a “qualified negative.” Although the president was giventhe authority to veto any act of Congress (with the exception of joint resolutions thatpropose constitutional amendments), Congress was given the authority to override anexecutive veto by a two-thirds vote in each house. Congress, however, cannot usuallymuster enough votes to override a veto. Thus, in over 200 years, there have beenapproximately 2,500 presidential vetoes and only about a hundred have been overridden.(To learn more about vetoes, see Table 8.3.)

Table 8.3 How many presidential vetoes have there been?

President Regular Vetoes Pocket Vetoes Total Vetoes Vetoes Overridden

Washington 2 ..... 2 .....J. Adams ..... ..... ..... .....Jefferson ..... ..... ..... .....Madison 5 2 7 .....Monroe 1 ..... 1 .....J. Q. Adams ..... ..... ..... .....Jackson 5 7 12 .....Van Buren ..... 1 1 .....W. H. Harrison ..... ..... ..... .....Tyler 6 4 10 1Polk 2 1 3 .....Taylor ..... ..... ..... .....Fillmore ..... ..... ..... .....Pierce 9 ..... 9 5Buchanan 4 3 7 .....Lincoln 2 5 7 .....A. Johnson 21 8 29 15Grant 45 48 93 4Hayes 12 1 13 1Garfield ..... ..... ..... .....Arthur 4 8 12 1Cleveland 304 110 414 2B. Harrison 19 25 44 1Cleveland 42 128 170 5McKinley 6 36 42 .....T. Roosevelt 42 40 82 1Taft 30 9 39 1Wilson 33 11 44 6Harding 5 1 6 .....Coolidge 20 30 50 4Hoover 21 16 37 3F. Roosevelt 372 263 635 9Truman 180 70 250 12Eisenhower 73 108 181 2Kennedy 12 9 21 .....L. Johnson 16 14 30 .....Nixon 26 17 43 7Ford 48 18 66 12Carter 13 18 31 2Reagan 39 39 78 9Busha 29 15 44 1Clinton 36 1 37 2G. W. Bush 10 ..... 10 3Obama* ..... 1 1 .....Total 1494 1067 2562 110

a President George Bush attempted to pocket veto two bills during intrasession recess periods. Congress considered the two bills enactedinto law because of the president’s failure to return the legislation. The bills are not counted as pocket vetoes in this table.*As of November 2010.Source: Clerk of the House, clerk.house.gov.

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Chief law enforcer: Troops sent byPresident Dwight D. Eisenhowerenforce a federal court decisionordering the integration of publicschools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Leader of the party: President RonaldReagan mobilized conservatives andchanged the nature of the RepublicanParty.

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Commander in chief: PresidentGeorge. W. Bush speaks about thewar in Iraq on aircraft carrier USSAbraham Lincoln.

Shaper of public policy: PresidentRichard M. Nixon cheers on the effortsof Apollo 11 astronauts as he celebratesU.S. space policy.

Key player in the legislative process: PresidentBill Clinton celebrates newly passed legislationat a bill signing ceremony.

Chief of state: President John F. Kennedyand his wife Jacqueline pose for cameraswith the president of France and his wifeduring the Kennedys’ widely publicized1961 trip to that nation.

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THE PRESIDENT’S MANY ROLES

As early as 1873, in his State of the Union message, President Ulysses S. Grantproposed a constitutional amendment to give to presidents a line-item veto, a powerto disapprove of individual items within a spending bill and not just the bill in itsentirety. Many governors have this authority. Over the years, 150 resolutions callingfor a line-item veto were introduced in Congress. Finally, in 1996, Congress enactedlegislation that gave the president this authority. The city of New York soon chal-lenged the line-item veto law when President Bill Clinton used it to stop payment ofsome congressionally authorized funds to the city. In Clinton v. City of New York(1998), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the line-item veto was unconstitutionalbecause it gave powers to the president denied him by the U.S. Constitution. Signifi-cant alterations of executive–congressional powers, said the Court, require constitu-tional amendment.12

The Power to Preside over the Militaryas Commander in ChiefOne of the most important executive powers is the president’s authority over the mili-tary. Article II states that the president is “Commander in Chief of the Army andNavy of the United States.” While the Constitution specifically grants Congress theauthority to declare war, presidents since Abraham Lincoln have used the commanderin chief clause in conjunction with the chief executive’s duty to “take Care that theLaws be faithfully executed” to wage war (and to broaden various powers).

Modern presidents continually clash with Congress over the ability to commencehostilities. The Vietnam War, in which 58,000 American soldiers were killed and300,000 were wounded, was conducted (at a cost of $150 billion) without a congres-sional declaration of war. In fact, acknowledging President Lyndon B. Johnson’s claimto war-making authority, in 1964 Congress passed—with only two dissenting votes—the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized a massive commitment of U.S.forces in South Vietnam.

During that highly controversial war, Presidents Johnson and Richard M. Nixonroutinely assured members of Congress that victory was near. In 1971, however, publi-cation of what were called The Pentagon Papers revealed what many people had sus-pected all along: the Johnson administration had systematically altered casualty figuresand distorted key facts to place the progress of the war in a more positive light.Angered that this misinformation had led Congress to defer to the executive in theconduct of the Vietnam War, in 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act to limitthe president’s authority to introduce American troops into hostile foreign lands with-out congressional approval. President Nixon vetoed the act, but it was overridden by atwo-thirds majority in both houses of Congress.

Presidents since Nixon have continued to insist that the War Powers Act is anunconstitutional infringement of their executive power. Still, in 2001, PresidentGeorge W. Bush complied with the act when he sought, and both houses of Con-gress approved, a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against “thoseresponsible for the recent [September 11] attacks launched against the UnitedStates.” This resolution actually gave the president more open-ended authority towage war than President Johnson had received from the Gulf of Tonkin Resolu-tion in 1964. In October 2002, after President Bush declared Iraq to be a “gravethreat to peace,” the House (296–133) and Senate (77–23) also voted overwhelm-ingly to allow the president to use force in Iraq “as he determines to be necessaryand appropriate,” thereby conferring tremendous authority on the president towage war. (To learn more about the controversies related to this law, see Join theDebate: The War Powers Act.)

line-item vetoThe authority of a chief executive todelete part of a bill passed by thelegislature that involves taxing orspending. Ruled unconstitutional bythe U.S. Supreme Court.

War Powers ActPassed by Congress in 1973; thepresident is limited in thedeployment of troops overseas to asixty-day period in peacetime (whichcan be extended for an extra thirtydays to permit withdrawal) unlessCongress explicitly gives its approvalfor a longer period.


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Join the DEBATE Is the War Powers Act Constitutional?The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, to make the rules that govern the military,and to provide appropriations to the armed services, but the Constitution also designates the presidentcommander in chief of the armed services. Since the nation’s founding, the president’s constitutionaljurisdiction over war powers has steadily increased.

Passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the War Powers Act of 1973 was an attempt to rein inthe war-making authority of the president by demanding, among other things, that the executive notifyCongress within forty-eight hours after deploying the armed forces in combat. The stated purpose of theact was to “fulfill the intent of the framers . . . and insure that the collective judgment of both theCongress and the president will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces intohostilities . . . and to the continued use of such forces.”

While generally complying with the requirements of the War Powers Act, every presidential adminis-tration since Nixon’s has argued that the act infringes on the president’s constitutional duty as commanderin chief. Consequently, the constitutionality of the War Powers Act remains contested. Some constitutionalscholars maintain that Congress is within its right to exercise oversight in foreign policy matters, reining inthe executive where necessary. Other scholars side with executive-branch officials who consider the WarPowers Act an infringement on the president’s constitutional authority. Does the War Powers Actundermine the ability of the executive to make foreign policy? Is the War Powers Act constitutional?

To develop an ARGUMENT FOR the constitution-ality of the War Powers Act, think about how:

■ The War Powers Act attempts to restore the balance ofshared control of the military. How does the Constitu-tion balance the powers of the president and Congresswith respect to the power to make war? How does theact return to the constitutional principle that wagingwar is to be shared by both branches of government?

■ The United States has not officially declared war sinceWorld War II. Does the constitutional separation ofpowers function in the context of undeclared wars?Could the Framers have anticipated the changingnature of warfare in the twentieth century?

■ The War Powers Act reflects the will of the Americanpeople. In what ways does the act place ultimate war-making authority with the American people? What roleshould Congress, as a representativeof the American people, play inoverseeing the use of force by theexecutive?

To develop an ARGUMENT AGAINST theconstitutionality of the War Powers Act, thinkabout how:

■ The Constitution clearly defines the role of the presi-dent in foreign policy. Why did the Framers grant pri-mary responsibility for foreign and military affairs tothe president?

■ The Constitution clearly defines the role of Congress inmilitary action. How does the War Powers Act unneces-sarily expand congressional authority in foreign policy?What other constitutional powers does Congress have tocheck the actions of the executive?

■ The Supreme Court has upheld an expanded interpreta-tion of the president’s authority in matters of foreignpolicy. How does the nature of international politics,including the need to act quickly to respond to threats in

a time of crisis, necessitatea greater concentration ofpower in the executive?

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What authority do presidents have duringwartime? President Lyndon B. Johnson’s actionduring the Vietnam War led to the passage ofthe War Powers Act, which, at least in theory,restricts presidential power to deploy troops.

The Development and Expansion of Presidential Power 279

The Pardoning PowerPresidents can exercise a check on judicial power through their constitutionalauthority to grant reprieves or pardons. A pardon is an executive grant releasing anindividual from the punishment or legal consequences of a crime before or afterconviction, and restores all rights and privileges of citizenship. Presidents exercisecomplete pardoning power for federal offenses except in cases of impeachment,which cannot be pardoned. President Gerald R. Ford granted the most famous pres-idential pardon when he pardoned former President Richard M. Nixon—who hadnot been formally charged with any crime—“for any offenses against the UnitedStates, which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed while inoffice.” This unilateral, absolute pardon unleashed a torrent of public criticismagainst Ford and questions about whether Nixon had discussed the pardon withFord before Nixon’s resignation. Many analysts attribute Ford’s defeat in the 1976election to that pardon.

Even though pardons are generally directed toward a specific individual, presi-dents have also used them to offer general amnesties. Presidents George Washington,John Adams, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Theodore Roo-sevelt, Harry S Truman, and Jimmy Carter used general pardons to grant amnesty tolarge classes of individuals for illegal acts. Carter, for example, incurred the wrath ofmany veterans’ groups when he made an offer of unconditional amnesty to approxi-mately 10,000 men who had fled the United States or gone into hiding to avoid beingdrafted for military service in the Vietnam War.

The Development and Expansionof Presidential Power

8.3 . . . Evaluate the development and expansion of presidential power.

Every president brings to the position not only a vision of America, but also expecta-tions about how to use presidential authority. But, most presidents find accomplishingtheir goals much more difficult than they envisioned. After President John F. Kennedywas in office two years, for example, he noted publicly that there were “greater limita-tions upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined.”13 Simi-larly, as he was leaving office, President Harry S Truman mused about what surprisesawaited his successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former general: “He’ll sit here andhe’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit likethe army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”14

A president’s authority is limited by the formal powers enumerated in Article IIof the Constitution and by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of those constitutionalprovisions. How a president wields these powers is affected by the times in which thepresident serves, his confidantes and advisers, and the president’s personality andleadership abilities. The 1950s postwar Era of Good Feelings and economic prosper-ity presided over by the grandfatherly Eisenhower, for instance, called for a very dif-ferent leader from the one needed by the Civil War–torn nation governed by AbrahamLincoln. Furthermore, not only do different times call for different kinds of leaders;they also often provide limits, or conversely, wide opportunities, for whoever serves aspresident at the time. Crises, in particular, trigger expansions of presidential power.The danger to the union posed by the Civil War in the 1860s required a strong leaderto take up the reins of government. Because of his leadership during this crisis, Lin-coln was ranked the best president in a survey of historians from across the politicalspectrum. (To learn more about presidential rankings, see Table 8.4.)

pardonAn executive grant providing restora-tion of all rights and privileges ofcitizenship to a specific individualcharged or convicted of a crime.

1789 President George Washington Takes Office—As the first president, Washingtonestablishes the Cabinet, sets a

precedent for the president's role in foreign affairs, and claims inherent powers for the office.

1787 Office Created— Article II of the Constitution includes provisions for a

chief executiveknown as the president.

1829 Chief of Party— President Andrew Jackson uses his personal popularity

to buttress the president’s role as chief of party.

1861 Using Inherent Powers— President Abraham Lincoln takes a

number of legally questionable actions during the Civil War. He claims these actions are justified by the inherent

powers of the presidency.

TIMELINE: The Development of Presidential Power

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Table 8.4 Who were the best and worst U.S. presidents?

Five Best Presidents Five Worst Presidents

1. Lincoln (best) 1. Buchanan (worst)2. Washington 2. A. Johnson3. F. Roosevelt 3. Pierce4. T. Roosevelt 4. W. H. Harrison5. Truman 5. Harding

Source: C-SPAN 2009 Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, www.cspan.com.

Establishing Presidential Authority:The First PresidentsWhen President George Washington was sworn in on a cold, blustery day in NewYork City on April 30, 1789, he took over an office and a government that were yet tobe created. Eventually, a few hundred postal workers were hired and Washingtonappointed a small group of Cabinet advisers and clerks. During Washington’s twoterms, the entire federal budget was only about $40 million, or approximately $10 forevery citizen in America. In contrast, in 2010, the federal budget was $3.55 trillion, or$11,500, for every man, woman, and child.

George Washington set several important precedents for future presidents:■ He took every opportunity to establish the primacy of the national government.

In 1794, for example, Washington used the militia of four states to put downthe Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising of 3,000 western Pennsylvania farmersopposed to the payment of a federal excise tax on liquor. Leading those 1,500troops was Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, whose duty it was tocollect federal taxes. Washington’s action helped establish the idea of federal

supremacy and the authority of the executive branch to collect the taxes leviedby Congress.

■ He began the practice of regular meetings with his advisers, thus establishingthe Cabinet system.

■ He asserted the prominence of the role of the chief executive in the conduct offoreign affairs. He sent envoys to negotiate the Jay Treaty to end continuedhostilities with Great Britain. Then, over senatorial objection, he continued toassert his authority first to negotiate treaties and then simply to submit themto the Senate for its approval. Washington made it clear that the Senate’sfunction was limited to approval of treaties and did not include negotiationwith foreign powers.

■ He claimed the powers of the presidency as the basis for proclaiming a policyof strict neutrality when the British and French were at war. Although theConstitution is silent about a president’s authority to declare neutrality,Washington’s supporters argued that the Constitution granted the presidentinherent powers—that is, powers that belong to the president because theycan be inferred from the Constitution. Thus, they argued, the president’s powerto conduct diplomatic relations could be inferred from the Constitution.Like Washington, the next two presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,

acted in ways that were critical to the development of the presidency as well as to thepresident’s role in the political system. Adams’s poor leadership skills, for example,heightened the divisions between Federalists and Anti-Federalists and probablyquickened the development of political parties. Jefferson took critical steps to expandthe role of the president in the legislative process. Like Washington, he claimed thatcertain presidential powers were inherent and used those inherent powers to justifyhis expansion of the size of the nation through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

1933 Modern Presidency— President Franklin D. Roos-evelt ushers in a new era

marked by a growing federal bureaucracy and an active role for the president in the

legislative process.

1939 Bureau of the Budget— FDR creates this office, now called

the Office of Management and Budget, to enhance the president's

role in the budget process.

1964 Chief Legislator—President Lyndon B. Johnson

establishes an even greater role for the president in the

legislative process.

2009 Chief of State— As the world becomes more globalized, the president’s role as ambassador

and diplomat becomes increas-ingly important.

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inherent powersPowers that belong to the presidentbecause they can be inferred fromthe Constitution.

Incremental Expansion of Presidential Powers: 1809–1933Although the first three presidents made enormous contributions to the office of the chiefexecutive, the way government had to function in its formative years caused the balance ofpower to be heavily weighted in favor of a strong Congress. Americans routinely had closecontacts with their representatives in Congress, while to most citizens the president seemeda remote figure. Members of Congress frequently were at home, where they were seen byvoters; few citizens ever even gazed on a president.By the end of Jefferson’s first term, it wasclear that the Framers’ initial fear of an all-powerful,monarchical president was unfounded.The strength of Congress and the relatively weak presidents who came after Jeffersonallowed Congress quickly to assert itself as the most powerful branch of government.

Andrew Jackson was the first president to act as a strong national leader who rep-resented more than just a landed, propertied elite. By the time Jackson ran for presi-dent in 1828, eleven new states had been added to the union, and the number of whitemales eligible to vote had increased dramatically as property requirements for votingwere removed by nearly all states. The election of Jackson, a Tennessean, as the sev-enth president signaled the end of an era: he was the first president not to be either aVirginian or an Adams. His election launched the beginning of Jacksonian democ-racy, a concept that embodied the western, frontier, egalitarian spirit personified byJackson. The masses loved him, and legends were built around his down-to-earthimage. Jackson, for example, once was asked to give a position to a soldier who hadlost his leg on the battlefield and needed the job to support his family. When told thatthe man hadn’t voted for him, Jackson responded: “If he lost his leg fighting for his

country, that is vote enough for me.”15

Jackson used his image and personal power tobuttress the developing party system by rewardingloyal followers of his Democratic Party with presi-dential appointments. Frequently at odds with Con-gress, he made use of the veto power against twelvebills, surpassing the combined total of ten vetoes usedby his six predecessors. Jackson also reasserted thesupremacy of the national government (and the presi-dency) by facing down South Carolina’s nullificationof a federal tariff law.

Abraham Lincoln’s approach to the presidencywas similar to Jackson’s.To combat the unprecedentedemergency of the Civil War, Lincoln assumed powersthat no president before him had claimed. BecauseLincoln believed he needed to act quickly for the verysurvival of the union, he frequently took action with-out first obtaining the approval of Congress. Amongmany of Lincoln’s legally questionable acts:

■ He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, whichallows those in prison to petition to bereleased, citing the need to jail personssuspected of disloyal practices.

■ He expanded the size of the U.S. Army abovecongressionally mandated ceilings.

■ He ordered a blockade of southern ports with-out the approval of Congress.

■ He closed the U.S. mail to treasonablecorrespondence.


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How did Abraham Lincoln expand presidential powers? During theCivil War, Lincoln assumed inherent powers that no president beforehim had claimed. He argued that these actions were necessary for thepreservation of the union. Here, he is shown meeting with militaryleaders at Antietam, Maryland.

Lincoln argued that the inherent powers of hisoffice allowed him to circumvent the Constitution ina time of war or national crisis. Since the Constitu-tion conferred on the president the duty to make surethat the laws of the United States are faithfully exe-cuted, reasoned Lincoln, the acts enumerated abovewere constitutional. He simply refused to allow thenation to crumble because of what he viewed as tech-nical requirements of the Constitution.

The Growth of the ModernPresidencyBefore the days of instantaneous communication, thenation could afford to allow Congress, with its rela-tively slow deliberative processes, to make most deci-sions. Furthermore, decision making might havebeen left to Congress because its members, and notthe president, were closest to the people. As timesand technology have changed, however, so have thepublic’s expectations of anyone who becomes presi-dent. The breakneck speed with which so many cablenews networks and Web sites report national andinternational events has intensified the public’sexpectation that, in a crisis, the president will be theindividual to act quickly and decisively on behalf ofthe entire nation. Congress often is unable to respondto fast-changing events—especially in foreign affairs.

Since the 1930s, the general trend has been forpresidential—as opposed to congressional—deci-sion making to be more and more important. Thestart of this trend can be traced to the four-termpresidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), who led the nation through several crises.This growth of presidential power and the growth of the federal government and itsprograms in general are now criticized by many people. To understand the basis formany of the calls for reform of the political system being made today, it is critical tounderstand how the growth of government and the role of the president occurred.16

FDR took office in 1933 in the midst of a major crisis—the Great Depression—during which a substantial portion of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Noting thesorry state of the national economy in his inaugural address, FDR concluded: “Thisnation asks for action and action now.” To jump-start the American economy, FDRasked Congress for and was given “broad executive powers to wage a war against theemergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invadedby a foreign foe.”17

Just as Abraham Lincoln had taken bold steps upon his inauguration, Rooseveltalso acted quickly. He immediately fashioned a plan for national recovery called theNew Deal, a package of bold and controversial programs designed to invigorate thefailing American economy (To learn more about the New Deal, see chapter 3).

Roosevelt served an unprecedented twelve years in office; he was elected to fourterms but died shortly after the beginning of this fourth term. During his years inoffice, the nation went from the economic war of the Great Depression to the realinternational conflict of World War II. The institution of the presidency changedprofoundly and permanently as new federal agencies were created to implement theNew Deal.

The Development and Expansion of Presidential Power 283

Presidential PowerThe power and authority of presidents varies across the globe.American presidents are neither the strongest nor the weakest chiefexecutives. In Germany, the president is a largely ceremonial offi-cial who is expected to remain nonpolitical. In Iran, the president isthe most powerful popularly elected official, but the most powerfulpolitical and religious figure is the supreme leader, who maydismiss the president and who “sets political guidelines for theIslamic Republic.”

France and Russia have both a president and a prime minister.In France, the president takes the lead in the areas of foreign policyand defense while the prime minister leads in domestic policyareas. The Russian president is powerful in both domestic and for-eign policy areas. One of the Russian president’s most importantpowers is the ability to issue decrees that have the force of law with-out any action by the Russian legislature, the Duma.

■ Why does presidential power vary so much from country tocountry?

■ What sorts of issues might require input from both a presidentand prime minister? What happens if they disagree?

■ Is it better for a country to be governed by one powerfulpresident who can act decisively or multiple leaders who mustreach consensus? Explain your answer.

New DealThe name given to the program of“Relief, Recovery, Reform” begun byPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt in1933 to bring the United States outof the Great Depression.


Not only did FDR create a new bureaucracy to implement his pet programs, but healso personalized the presidency by establishing a new relationship between the presi-dent and the people. In his radio addresses, or fireside chats, as he liked to call them, hespoke directly to the public in a relaxed and informal manner about serious issues.

To his successors, FDR left the modern presidency, including a burgeoning fed-eral bureaucracy, an active and usually leading role in both domestic and foreign pol-icy and legislation, and a nationalized executive office that used technology—firstradio, then television, and now the Internet—to bring the president closer to the pub-lic than ever before.

The Presidential Establishment8.4 . . . Outline the structure of the presidential establishment and the

functions of each of its components.

As the responsibilities and scope of presidential authority grew over the years, so didthe executive branch, including the number of people working directly for the presi-dent in the White House. The vice president and his staff, the Cabinet, the first ladyand her staff, the Executive Office of the President, and the White House staff all helpthe president fulfill his duties as chief executive.

The Vice PresidentFor many years the vice presidency was considered a sure place for a public official todisappear into obscurity. When John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, about his posi-tion as America’s first vice president, he said it was “the most insignificant office thatwas the invention of man . . . or his imagination conceived.”18

Historically, presidents chose their vice presidents largely to balance—politically, geo-graphically, or otherwise—the presidential ticket, with little thought given to the possibil-ity that the vice president would become president. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, aliberal New Yorker, selected John Nance Garner, a conservative Texan, to be his runningmate in 1932. After serving two terms, Garner—who openly disagreed with Rooseveltover many policies, including Roosevelt’s decision to seek a third term—unsuccessfullysought the 1940 presidential nomination himself.

In 2008, Senator John McCain surprised mostcommentators when he selected Alaska GovernorSarah Palin to be his running mate. Palin, a virtualunknown outside her home state, energized social con-servatives who had not been firmly behind McCain.Barack Obama, who was accused of lacking foreignpolicy experience, chose Senator Joe Biden (D–DE) toprovide balance to the Democratic ticket.

How much power a vice president has depends onhow much the president is willing to give. Jimmy Carterwas the first president to give his vice president, WalterMondale, more than ceremonial duties. In fact, Mondalewas the first vice president to have an office in the WhiteHouse. The last two vice presidents, Dick Cheney andJoe Biden, have been given significant powers and accessto the president, elevating the office to new heights.

The CabinetThe Cabinet, which has no official basis in the Constitutionbut is implied by Article II, section 2, is an informal institu-tion based on practice and precedent whose membership isPh

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What guides the selection of a running mate? Governor SarahPalin (R–AK) and Senator Joe Biden (D–DE) were chosen as vicepresidential nominees for very different reasons. Both, however,helped to balance two historic presidential tickets.

The Presidential Establishment 285

determined by tradition and presidential discretion. By custom, this advi-sory group selected by the president includes the heads of major execu-tive departments. Presidents today also include their vice presidents inCabinet meetings, as well as any other agency heads or officials to whomthey would like to accord Cabinet-level status.

As a body, the Cabinet’s major function is to help the presidentexecute the laws and assist him in making decisions. Although theFramers discussed the idea of some form of national executive coun-cil, they did not include a provision for one in the Constitution. Theydid recognize, however, the need for departments of government anddepartmental heads.

Over the years, the Cabinet has grown alongside the responsibilitiesof the national government. As interest groups, in particular, pressuredCongress and the president to recognize their demands for services andgovernmental action, they often were rewarded by the creation of anexecutive department. Since each was headed by a secretary who auto-matically became a member of the president’s Cabinet, powerful clien-tele groups including farmers (Agriculture), business people(Commerce),workers (Labor), and teachers (Education) saw the creationof a department as increasing their access to the president.

While the size of the president’s Cabinet has increased over theyears, most presidents’ reliance on their Cabinet secretaries hasdecreased. Some individual members of a president’s Cabinet, how-ever, may be very influential. (To learn more about the Cabinet’s rolein executing U.S. policy, see chapter 9.)

The First LadyFrom the time of Martha Washington, first ladies (a term coined in1849) have assisted presidents as informal advisers while making other,more public, and significant contributions to American society. AbigailAdams, for example, was a constant sounding board for her husband,John. An early feminist, in 1776 she cautioned him “to Remember theLadies” in any new code of laws.

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was probably the most powerful firstlady. When President Woodrow Wilson collapsed and was left partlyparalyzed in 1919, she became his surrogate and decided whom andwhat the stricken president saw. Her detractors dubbed her “ActingFirst Man.”

Eleanor Roosevelt also played a powerful and much criticized role in national affairs.Not only did she write a nationally syndicated daily newspaper column, but she traveledand lectured widely, worked tirelessly on countless Democratic Party matters, and raisedsix children. After FDR’s death, she shone in her own right as U.S. delegate to the UnitedNations, where she headed the commission that drafted the covenant on human rights.Later, she headed President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women.

More recently, First Lady Michelle Obama, a lawyer who was an administrator at theUniversity of Chicago Medical Center, has prioritized health and physical fitness. Fromplanting an organic White House vegetable garden to visiting schools around the country,she has stressed the importance of healthy lunches and encouraged children to make nutri-tious choices, viewing childhood obesity as a serious problem and policy priority.

The Executive Office of the President (EOP)The Executive Office of the President (EOP) was established by FDR in 1939 to overseehis New Deal programs. It was created to provide the president with a general staff to helphim direct the diverse activities of the executive branch. In fact, it is a mini-bureaucracyof several advisers and offices located in the ornate Eisenhower Executive Office

Executive Office of thePresident (EOP)A mini-bureaucracy created in 1939to help the president oversee theexecutive branch bureaucracy.

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What do first ladies do? First ladies often takeon important policy initiatives and charitablecauses. First Lady Michelle Obama, for example,has prioritized childhood health and fitness. Sheis shown here harvesting the White Housevegetable garden.


Building next to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as in the WhiteHouse itself, where the president’s closest advisers often are located.

The EOP has expanded to include several advisory and policy-making agenciesand task forces. Over time, the units of the EOP have become the prime policy mak-ers in their fields of expertise as they play key roles in advancing the president’s policypreferences. Among the EOP’s most important members are the National SecurityCouncil, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Management and Budget,the Office of the Vice President, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The National Security Council (NSC) was established in 1947 to advise the pres-ident on American military affairs and foreign policy. The NSC is composed of thepresident, the vice president, and the secretaries of state, defense, and treasury. Thechair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of the Central Intelligence Agencyalso participate. Others such as the White House chief of staff and the general coun-sel may attend. The national security adviser runs the staff of the NSC, coordinatesinformation and options, and advises the president.

Although the president appoints the members of each of these bodies, they mustperform their tasks in accordance with congressional legislation. As with the Cabinet,depending on who serves in key positions, these mini-agencies may not be trulyresponsible to the president.

Presidents can give clear indications of their policy preferences by the kinds ofoffices they include in the EOP. President Barack Obama’s addition of an EconomicRecovery Advisory Board to the EOP showed his concern about the economy and adesire to find ways to bring the country out of recession.

The White House StaffOften more directly responsible to the president are the members of the White Housestaff: the personal assistants to the president, including senior aides, their deputies,assistants with professional duties, and clerical and administrative aides. As personalassistants, these advisers are not subject to Senate confirmation, nor do they havedivided loyalties. Their power is derived from their personal relationship to the presi-dent, and they have no independent legal authority.

Although presidents organize the White House staff in different ways, they typi-cally have a chief of staff whose job is to facilitate the smooth running of the staff andthe executive branch of government. Successful chiefs of staff also have protected thepresident from mistakes and helped implement policies to obtain the maximum polit-ical advantage for the president. Other key White House aides include domestic, for-eign, and economic policy strategists; the communications staff; the White Housecounsel; and a lobbyist who acts as a liaison between the president and Congress.

As presidents have tried to consolidate power in the White House, and as publicdemands on the president have grown, the size of the White House staff hasincreased—from fifty-one in 1943, to 247 in 1953, to a high of 583 in 1972. Since thattime, staffs have been trimmed, generally running around 500. The Obama WhiteHouse has approximately 490 staffers.

Presidential Leadership and theImportance of Public Opinion

8.5 . . . Explain the concept of presidential leadership, and analyze the importance of public opinion.

A president’s ability to get his programs adopted or implemented depends on manyfactors, including his leadership abilities, his personality and powers of persuasion, hisability to mobilize public opinion to support his actions, the public’s perception of hisperformance, and Congress’s perception of his public support.

Presidential Leadership and the Importance of Public Opinion 287

Presidential LeadershipLeadership is not an easy thing to exercise, and it remains an elusive concept forscholars to identify and measure, but it is important to all presidents seeking supportfor their programs and policies. Moreover, ideas about the importance of effectiveleaders have deep roots in our political culture. The leadership abilities of the greatpresidents—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR—have been extolled over andover again, leading us to fault modern presidents who fail to cloak themselves in thearmor of leadership. Americans thus have come to believe that “if presidential leader-ship works some of the time, why not all of the time?”19 This attitude, in turn,directly influences what we expect presidents to do and how we evaluate them.

Research by political scientists shows that presidents can exercise leadership byincreasing public attention to particular issues. Analyses of presidential State of theUnion Addresses, for example, reveal that mentions of particular policies translate intomore Americans mentioning those policies as the most important problems facing thenation.20 Political scientist Richard E. Neustadt calls the president’s ability to influ-ence members of Congress and the public “the power to persuade.” Neustadt believesthis power is crucial to presidential leadership.21

Frequently, the difference between great and mediocre presidents centers on theirability to grasp the importance of leadership style. Truly great presidents, such as Lin-coln and FDR, understood that the White House was a seat of power from whichdecisions could flow to shape the national destiny. They recognized that their day-to-day activities and how they went about them should be designed to bolster supportfor their policies and to secure congressional and popular backing that could translatetheir intuitive judgment into meaningful action. Mediocre presidents, on the otherhand, have tended to regard the White House as “a stage for the presentation of per-formances to the public” or a fitting honor to cap a career.22

Political scientist James David Barber characterized presidents based on theirenergy level (active or passive) and their attitude toward their job (positive or negative).He argues that active-positive presidents are most successful due to their drive to leadand succeed positively. In stark contrast, Barber contends that passive-negative presi-dents are reactive and likely to follow the lead of others, thus failing to make full use oftheir resources as president. (To learn more about these personalities, see Table 8.5.)

Going Public: Mobilizing Public OpinionEven before radio, television, and the Internet, presidents tried to reach out to the publicto gain support for their programs through what President Theodore Roosevelt calledthe bully pulpit. The development of commercial air travel and radio, newsreels, televi-sion, computers, and cell phones have made direct communication to larger numbers ofvoters easier. Presidents, first ladies, and other presidential advisers travel all over theworld to publicize their views and to build personal support as well as support for admin-istration programs.

Table 8.5 What can we learn from presidential personalities?

Active Passive

Positive F. Roosevelt TaftTruman HardingKennedy ReaganFordCartera

BushNegative Wilson Coolidge

Hoover EisenhowerL. JohnsonNixon

a Some scholars think that Carter better fits the active-negative typology.Source: James David Barber, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House, 5th ed. (New York: Longman, 2009).


Direct, presidential appeals to the electorate like those often made by recent pres-idents are referred to as “going public.”23 Going public means that a president goesover the heads of members of Congress to gain support from the people, who can thenplace pressure on their elected officials in Washington.

Bill Clinton was keenly aware of the importance of maintaining his connectionwith the public. Beginning with his 1992 campaign, Clinton often appeared on LarryKing Live on CNN. Even after becoming president, Clinton continued to take hiscase directly to the people. He launched his health care reform proposals, for example,on a prime-time edition of Nightline hosted by Ted Koppel. Moreover, at a black-tiedinner honoring radio and television correspondents, Clinton responded to criticismsleveled against him for not holding traditional press conferences by pointing out howclever he was to ignore the traditional press. “You know why I can stiff you on thepress conferences? Because Larry King liberated me from you by giving me to theAmerican people directly.”24

Barack Obama continued the tradition of going directly to the people, becomingthe first sitting president to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman and later onThe View. And, just like George W. Bush before him, he also chose to give an importantspeech on the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before a receptive audience at theU.S. Naval Academy.

The Public’s Perception of PresidentialPerformanceFor presidents and other public figures, approval ratings are often used as tacit meas-ures of their political capital: their ability to enact public policy simply because of theirname and their office. Presidents who have high approval ratings, as President GeorgeW. Bush did in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,

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What role do presidential speeches serve? President John F. Kennedy gave one of the most famouspresidential commencement addresses when he spoke at American University on June 10, 1963. In this speech, he called on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to craft a nuclear testban treaty.

Presidential Leadership and the Importance of Public Opinion 289

are assumed to be more powerful leaders with a mandate for action that comes largelyby virtue of high levels of public support.They are often able to use their clout to pushcontroversial legislation, such as the USA PATRIOT Act, through Congress. A pub-lic appearance from a popular president can even deliver a hotly contested congres-sional seat or gubernatorial contest to the president’s party.

In sharp contrast, presidents with low approval ratings are often crippled in the policyarena.Their low ratings can actually prevent favored policies from being enacted on Capi-tol Hill, even when their party controls the legislature, as many of their partisans locked inclose elections shy away from being seen or affiliated with an unpopular president.

Presidential popularity, however, generally follows a cyclical pattern. These cycleshave been recorded since 1938, when pollsters first began to track presidential popu-larity. Typically, presidents enjoy their highest level of public approval at the begin-ning of their terms and try to take advantage of this honeymoon period to get theirprograms passed by Congress as soon as possible. Each action a president takes, how-ever, is divisive—some people will approve, and others will disapprove. Disapprovaltends to have a negative cumulative effect on a president’s approval rating.

Since Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, only four presidents have left office withapproval ratings of more than 50 percent. (To learn more, see Analyzing Visuals: Pres-idential Approval Ratings Since 1981.) Many people attribute this trend to eventssuch as Vietnam, Watergate, and the Iraq War, which have made the public increas-ingly skeptical of presidential performance.

However, recent presidents have experienced a surge in their approval ratings dur-ing the course of their presidencies. Popularity surges usually allow presidents toachieve some policy goals that they believe are for the good of the nation, even thoughthe policies are unpopular with the public. Often coming on the heels of a domesticor international crisis such as the 1991 Persian Gulf War or the 9/11 terrorist attacks,these increased approval ratings generally don’t last long, as the cumulative effects ofgoverning once again catch up with the president.

Following 9/11, George W. Bush enjoyed one of the longest approval rating ral-lies in history. But, by 2005, his approval ratings hovered around 50 percent in thewake of political scandals, escalating violence in Iraq, and rising gas prices. The presi-dent’s approval ratings dropped even lower in 2006; by the midterm elections theywere a scant 35 percent. As one Republican pollster commented, “[Bush] has no polit-ical capital. Slowly but surely it’s been unraveling. There’s been a direct correlationbetween the trajectory of his approval numbersand the—I don’t want to call it disloyalty—theindependence on the part of the Republicans inCongress.”25 In many states, voters viewed theelections as a referendum on Bush, leading towidespread Democratic victories that resulted inDemocrats gaining control of both the Houseand the Senate. By the 2008 elections, PresidentBush’s approval rating had dropped to a stagger-ingly low 26 percent, and Republican candidateJohn McCain lost his election bid.

President Barack Obama entered office withnearly 70 percent approval and held relativelyhigh approval ratings for the first few months.However, as is the trend with most presidents,Obama suffered a gradual decline and fell below50 percent at the beginning of 2010. Continuingeconomic crises and his struggle to promote hishealth care agenda contributed to this decline.By the time of the 2010 congressional midterms,his approval ratings had dropped to 46 percent. Ph

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How important is public opinion to presidential success? Public supportcan be essential to presidents’ policy making power both at home andabroad. Here, President Barack Obama speaks to Chinese youth on a statevisit to China.


TOWARD REFORM: The President as Policy Maker

8.6 . . . Assess the president’s role as policy maker.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent his first legislative package to Congress, hebroke the traditional model of law-making.26 As envisioned by the Framers, it was to beCongress that made the laws. Now FDR was claiming a leadership role for the presidentin the legislative process. Said the president of this new relationship: “It is the duty of thePresident to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.”27 With those wordsand the actions that followed, FDR shifted the presidency into a law- and policy-makerrole. Now the president and the executive branch not only executed the laws but generallysuggested them and proposed budgets to Congress to fund those proposals (see chapter 7).

Examine the line graph, which shows the percentage of the American public approving of the president’sperformance from 1981 through 2010, and answer the questions.

■ Which president left office with the highest approval ratings? The lowest approval ratings?■ What pattern do you notice in the approval ratings of each president?■ How would you explain the changes in the approval ratings of President Barack Obama?Source: Gallup.com

ANALYZING VISUALS

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Toward Reform: The President as Policy Maker 291

The President’s Role in Proposingand Facilitating LegislationFrom FDR’s presidency to the Republican-controlled104th Congress, the public looked routinely to thepresident to formulate concrete legislative plans topropose to Congress, which subsequently adopted,modified, or rejected his plans for the nation. Then,in 1994, it appeared for a while that the electoratewanted Congress to reassert itself in the legislativeprocess. In fact, the Contract with America was aRepublican call for Congress to take the reins ofthe law-making process. But, several RepublicanCongresses failed to pass many of the items of theContract, and President Bill Clinton’s continuedforceful presence in the budgetary and legislativeprocesses made a resurgent role for Congress largelyillusory.

Thus, modern presidents continue to play a majorrole in setting the legislative agenda, especially in anera when the House and Senate are narrowly dividedalong partisan lines. Without working majorities,“merely placing a program before Congress is notenough,” as President Lyndon B. Johnson once explained. “Without constant atten-tion from the administration, most legislation moves through the congressionalprocess at the speed of a glacier.”28

On the whole, presidents have a hard time getting Congress to pass their pro-grams. Recent research by political scientists, however, shows that presidents are muchmore likely to win on bills central to their announced agendas, such as PresidentBarack Obama’s victory on health care reform, than to secure passage of legislationproposed by others.29

Because presidents generally experience declining support for policies they advo-cate throughout their terms, it is important that a president propose key plans early inhis administration. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was able to get nearly 60percent of his programs through Congress, noted: “You’ve got to give it all you can,that first year . . . before they start worrying about themselves. . . . You can’t put any-thing through when half the Congress is thinking how to beat you.”30

Another way a president can bolster support for his legislative package is tocall on his political party. As the informal leader of his party, he should be able touse that position to his advantage to build coalitions in Congress, where party loy-alty is very important. This strategy works best when the president has carriedmembers of his party into office on his coattails as well as when his party has amajority in the legislature.

The Budgetary Process and LegislativeImplementationClosely associated with a president’s ability to pass legislation is his ability to securefunding for new and existing programs. A president sets national policy and prioritiesthrough his budget proposals and his continued insistence on their congressional pas-sage. The budget proposal not only outlines the programs he wants but indicates theimportance of each program by the amount of funding requested for each and for itsassociated agency or department.

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How did the president become a policy maker? President FranklinD. Roosevelt’s strong leadership of Congress throughout the GreatDepression and World War II helped cement the powers of themodern presidency. Here, Roosevelt gives a “fireside chat” radiobroadcast to the American people.


Because the Framers gave Congress the power of the purse, Congress had primaryresponsibility for the budget process until 1930. The economic disaster set off by thestock market crash of 1929, however, gave FDR the opportunity to assert himself inthe congressional budgetary process, just as he inserted himself in the legislativeprocess. In 1939, the Bureau of the Budget, which had been created in 1921 to helpthe president tell Congress how much money it would take to run the executivebranch of government, was made part of the newly created Executive Office of thePresident. In 1970, President Nixon changed its name to the Office of Managementand Budget (OMB) to clarify its function in the executive branch.

The OMB works exclusively for the president and employs hundreds of budget andpolicy experts. Key OMB responsibilities include preparing the president’s annual budgetproposal, designing the president’s program, and reviewing the progress, budget, and pro-gram proposals of the executive department agencies. It also supplies economic forecaststo the president and conducts detailed analyses of proposed bills and agency rules. OMBreports allow the president to attach price tags to his legislative proposals and defend thepresidential budget.The OMB budget is a huge document, and even those who prepareit have a hard time deciphering all of its provisions. Even so, the expertise of the OMBdirectors often gives them an advantage over members of Congress.

Policy Making Through Executive OrderProposing legislation and using the budget to advance policy priorities are not the onlyways that presidents can affect the policy process, especially in times of highly dividedgovernment when the policies of the president and Congress may differ. Major policychanges may be instituted when a president has issued an executive order, a rule or reg-ulation issued by the president that has the effect of law without congressional approval.Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman used executive orders to seizemills, mines, and factories whose production was crucial to World War II and theKorean War efforts. Roosevelt and Truman argued that these actions were necessary topreserve national security. The Supreme Court, however, eventually disagreed with theTruman administration in Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer (1952). In that case, theCourt unequivocally stated that Truman had overstepped the boundaries of his office asprovided by the Constitution.31

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How important is a balanced budget? President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore celebratethe first balanced budget in years, a feat not likely to be repeated soon.

Office of Management andBudget (OMB)The office that prepares thepresident’s annual budget proposal,reviews the budget and programs ofthe executive departments, supplieseconomic forecasts, and conductsdetailed analyses of proposed billsand agency rules.

executive orderRule or regulation issued by thepresident that has the effect of law.All executive orders must bepublished in the Federal Register.

What Should I Have LEARNED? 293

While many executive orders are issued to help clarify or implement legislationenacted by Congress, other executive orders have the effect of making new policy. Presi-dent Truman also used an executive order to end segregation in the military, and affir-mative action was institutionalized as national policy through Executive Order 11246,issued by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966.

In March 2009, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13506 creatingthe White House Council on Women and Girls. Present were nearly all Cabinet secre-taries, who were charged with working together to enhance rights and opportunities forwomen and girls.

Presidents may also issue “signing statements” when signing legislation. Oftenthese written statements merely comment on the bill signed, but they sometimesinclude controversial claims by the president that some part of the legislation isunconstitutional and that he intends to disregard it or to implement it in other ways.

President George W. Bush used signing statements to express his belief that por-tions of more than 1,200 laws were unconstitutional. “Among the laws Bush said hecan ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative action provisions, require-ments that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘whistle-blower’protections for nuclear regulator officials, and safeguards against political interferencein federally funded research.”32

After taking office, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum instructingagencies not to follow directives from previous administrations without first seekingthe approval of the Department of Justice.33 And yet, much like Bush, Obama hasissued several signing statements raising constitutional concerns about bills he signedinto law, including several sections of the $447-billion budget bill in 2009.34

Signing statements, thus, have become another way for the president to use hisinformal powers to make and influence public policy. For example, these statementsinvite litigation and may delay policy implementation. Because signing statementshappen at the end of the legislative process, they are also a largely unchecked way forthe president to assert himself in the ongoing power struggle with Congress.

8.1 Trace the development of the presidency and theprovisions for choosing and replacing presidents, p. 266.Distrust of a too powerful leader led the Framers to createan executive office with limited powers. They mandatedthat a president be at least thirty-five years old, a natural-born citizen, and a resident of the United States for at leastfourteen years, and they opted not to limit the president’sterm of office. To further guard against tyranny, they madeprovisions for the removal of the president.

8.2 Identify and describe the constitutional powersof the president, p. 272.The Framers gave the president a variety of specificconstitutional powers in Article II, including theappointment power, the power to convene Congress,and the power to make treaties. The Constitution alsogives the president the power to grant pardons and toveto acts of Congress. In addition, the presidentderives considerable power from being commanderin chief of the military.

8.3 Evaluate the development and expansion ofpresidential power, p. 279.The development of presidential power has depended onthe personal force of those who have held the office.George Washington, in particular, took several actions toestablish the primacy of the president in national affairs andas chief executive of a strong national government. Withonly a few exceptions, subsequent presidents often letCongress dominate in national affairs. With the election ofFranklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), however, the power of thepresident increased, and presidential decision makingbecame more important in national and foreign affairs.

8.4 Outline the structure of the presidential establishment and the functions of each of itscomponents, p. 284.As the responsibilities of the president have grown, so hasthe executive branch of government. FDR established theExecutive Office of the President to help him govern.Perhaps the most important policy advisers are those

What Should I Have LEARNED?Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to:


closest to the president: the vice president, the WhiteHouse staff, some members of the Executive Office of thePresident, and the first lady.

8.5 Explain the concept of presidential leadership,and analyze the importance of public opinion, p. 286.To gain support for his programs or proposed budget,the president uses a variety of skills, including personalleadership and direct appeals to the public. How thepresident goes about winning support is determined byhis leadership and personal style, which are affected by hischaracter and his ability to persuade. Since the 1970s,

however, the American public has been increasinglyskeptical of presidential actions, and few presidents haveenjoyed the extended periods of popularity needed to helpwin support for programmatic change.

8.6 Assess the president’s role as policy maker,p. 290.Since FDR, the public has looked to the president topropose legislation to Congress.Through proposinglegislation, advancing budgets, involvement in the regulatoryprocess, and executive orders and agreements, presidentsmake policy.

Test Yourself: The Presidency8.1 Trace the development of the presidency and the

provisions for choosing and replacing presidents, p. 266.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election to four terms aspresident, which constitutional amendment was passed tolimit the number of terms a president could serve?A. TwentiethB. Twenty-FirstC. Twenty-SecondD. Twenty-ThirdE. Twenty-Fourth

8.2 Identify and describe the constitutional powersof the president, p. 272.

Which of the following is NOT considered a constitutionalpower of the president?A. Power to make appointmentsB. Power to convene CongressC. Power to make lawsD. Power to issue a line-item vetoE. Power to pardon

8.3 Evaluate the development and expansion of presidential power, p. 279.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the powers of the presidency largely as a result ofA. World War I.B. the Great Depression.C. his continued successes during his five terms as president.D. increasing the size of the U.S. Supreme Court.E. closing the U.S. mail to supposedly treasonous

correspondence.

8.4 Outline the structure of the presidentialestablishment and the functions of each of itscomponents, p. 284.

What is the primary purpose of the Executive Office of thePresident?A. Check the powers of the presidentB. Act as a liaison between Congress and the president

C. Decide who should be appointed to the CabinetD. Help the president oversee the bureaucracyE. Serve as spokespeople for the White House

8.5 Explain the concept of presidential leadership,and analyze the importance of public opinion, p. 286.

Presidents often leave office with approval ratingsA. higher than those of Congress.B. that rival those ratings experienced during their

honeymoon period.C. below 50 percent.D. similar to ratings during times of national crisis.E. at their lowest levels.

8.6 Assess the president’s role as policy maker,p. 290.

Presidents have a particularly difficult time getting Congressto pass their programs ifA. they have unusually high approval ratings.B. proposals are consistent with their announced agenda.C. proposals are accompanied by signing statements.D. they are no longer in their honeymoon period.E. political parties have disagreements over the language

of the bills.

Essay Questions1. How did U.S. v. Nixon (1974) affect a president’s claim

to executive privilege?2. Discuss the various roles a president must play while in

office.3. How does a president’s leadership style affect the way

he governs?4. Describe the roles of the first lady.

To Learn More on the Presidency 295

Key TermsCabinet, p. 272executive agreements, p. 274Executive Office of the President

(EOP), p. 285executive order, p. 292executive privilege, p. 270

impeachment, p. 269inherent powers, p. 281line-item veto, p. 277New Deal, p. 283Office of Management and

Budget (OMB), p. 292

pardon, p. 279Twenty-Fifth Amendment, p. 271Twenty-Second Amendment, p. 269U.S. v. Nixon (1974), p. 270veto power, p. 274War Powers Act, p. 277

To Learn More on the PresidencyIn the LibraryBarber, James David. The Presidential Character: Predicting Presidential

Performance in the White House, 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2008.Cooper, Philip J. By Order of the President:The Use and Abuse of

Executive Direct Action. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.Cronin, Thomas E., and Michael A. Genovese. The Paradoxes of the

American Presidency, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press,2009.

Greenstein, Fred I. The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from

FDR to George W. Bush, 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2004.

Han, Lori Cox. New Directions in the American Presidency. NewYork: Routledge, 2010.

Neustadt, Richard E. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents.New York: Free Press, 1991.

Pfiffner, James P. The Character Factor: How We Judge America’s

Presidents. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004.———. The Modern Presidency, 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,

2010.Pika, Joseph A., and John Anthony Maltese. The Politics of the

Presidency, 7th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009.Rozell, Mark J. Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy, and

Accountability. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010.Schier, Steven E. Panorama of a Presidency: How George W. Bush

Acquired and Spent His Political Capital. Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe, 2008.

Shesol, Jeff. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme

Court. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.

Skowronek, Stephen. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from

John Adams to Bill Clinton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 1997.

Warshaw, Shirley Anne. The Keys to Power: Managing the Presidency,2nd ed. New York: Longman, 2005.

Wood, B. Dan. The Politics of Economic Leadership: The Causes and

Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2007.

On the WebTo learn more about the office of the president, go to the official

White House Web site at www.whitehouse.gov. There you cantrack current presidential initiatives and legislative priorities,read press briefings, and learn more about presidentialnominations and executive orders.

To learn more about past presidents, go to the National ArchivesWeb site at www.archives.gov/index.html. There you can learnabout the presidential libraries, view presidential documents,and hear audio of presidents speaking.

To learn more about the office of the vice president, go to www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident.

To learn more about the initiatives favored by the first lady, go towww.whitehouse.gov/firstlady.

eText: Chapter 8

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Simulation: You Are a President During a NuclearMeltdown

Comparative: Comparing Chief ExecutivesTimeline: The Executive Order Over TimeVisual Literacy: Presidential Success in Polls and

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M08 OCON1301 11 SE C08 · The modern media, used by successful presidents to help advance their agendas, have brought us closer to our presidents and made them seem more human, a