American Politics and Foreign Policy

American President and the Rise of Presidential Government

Prof. Jaechun Kim

*When the Founding Fathers created the presidency, they didn’t have any models on which to draw… no democratically selected chief executive in the world … they needed somebody to represent the country, but not the kings or queens! So created inherently weak presidency… but strong enough to balance the Congress…

Who can become American President?

The requirements for becoming president

Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of Presi-dent; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have at-tained to the Age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Anybody can become the president of the US? 26 have been lawyers…

JFK – 43; Reagan – 69; average 54

American President

There has been a demographic bias in the selection of presidents - All have been male, white, and Protestant, except for John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic. Of course this has changed in 2008 election.

The Power and Functions of the President

These are (1) chief of state, (2) chief executive, (3) comman-der in chief of the armed forces, (4) chief diplomat, and (5) chief legislator of the United States.

Chief of State Ceremonial head of the state In most democratic governments, the role of chief of state

is given to someone other than the chief executive, who is the head of the executive branch of government. e.g., GB, Japan, France… but not in the US…

As chief of state, the president engages in a number of activities that are largely symbolic or ceremonial, such as the following:

Decorating war heroes. Throwing out the first ball to open the baseball sea-

son. Receiving visiting chiefs of state at the White House. Going on official state visits to other countries. Making personal telephone calls to astronauts. Representing the nation at times of national mourning,

such as after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Chief Executive

According to the Constitution, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. [H]e may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Depart-ments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices … and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States… . [H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

To assist in the various tasks of the chief executive, the president has a federal bureaucracy, which cur-rently consists of about 2.8 million federal civilian em-ployees.

The Powers of Appointment and Removal. Even though the president has appointment power, it is not very extensive, being limited to cabinet and subcabinet jobs, federal judgeships, agency heads, and about two thousand lesser jobs. Most of the 2.8 million federal em-ployees owe no political allegiance to the president. These guys may be more loyal to the interest groups that represent the sector of the society that they serve…

cf. Harry Truman - "He'll sit here and he'll say do this! do that! and nothing will happen. Poor Ike – it won't be a bit like the Army. He'll find it very frustrating."

Harry Truman ‘I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them. That’s all the powers of the President amount to.’

It is this limitations on presidential power that has led the position to be described as ‘per-suader-in-chief’, ‘bargainer-in-chief’ or ‘negotia-tor-in-chief’. Richard Neustadt – Power of Per-suasion… importance of communication skills!!!

The Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons (except in cases of impeachment)

Commander in Chief

The president, according to the Constitution, "shall be

Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United

States, and of the Militia of the several States, when

called into the actual Service of the United States."

Which branch has the power to declare war?

But in reality the presidents can use military forces in sit-

uations that are the equivalent of war… e.g, JFK and

LBJ and Nixon during Vietnam War… and many other

cases.

Chief Diplomat !!!

Diplomatic Recognition. An important power of the president as chief diplomat is that of diplomatic recognition, or the power to recognize – or refuse to recognize – foreign governments.

Proposal and Ratification of Treaties. The president has the sole power to negotiate treaties with other nations…although…

Basically, president dominates American FP… cf. Congress - power to regulate commerce and power to declare war

Chief Legislator !!! “The President proposes and; Congress disposes.”

Getting Legislation Passed – Positive Power. “Power of persuasion” – Richard Neustadt

Saying No to Legislation – Negative Power. The Constitution requires that every bill passed by the House and the Senate be sent to the president be-fore it becomes law, the president must act on each bill.

1. If the bill is signed, it becomes law. 2. If the bill is not sent back to Congress after ten

congressional working days, it becomes law without the president's signature.

3. The president can reject the bill and send it back to Congress with a veto message setting forth objections. Congress then can change the bill, hoping to secure presidential approval and re-pass it. Or it can simply re-ject the president's objections by overriding the veto with a two-thirds roll-call vote of the members present in each house.

4. If the president refuses to sign the bill and Congress ad-journs within ten working days after the bill has been submitted to the president, the bill is killed for that ses-sion of Congress. If Congress wishes the bill to be re-considered, the bill must be reintroduced during the fol-lowing session. pocket veto!!

cf. The Line-Item Veto. In 1996, Congress passed the Line Item Veto Act, which granted the president the power to rescind any item in an appropriations bill. In 1998, by a six-to-three vote, the United States Supreme Court overturned the act.

cf. Executive Orders. Congress allows the president (as well as administrative agencies) to issue executive orders that have the force of law. Efficient and speedy…

Special Powers Emergency Powers – FDR after the fall of France for mobilization;

Truman during the Korean War declared emergency for federal seizure of steel industry… Supreme Court said, “no”!!

Executive Orders (=law) and Executive Agreements (=treaties)…

Executive Privilege ..to refuse to appear before, or to withhold information from Congress or the courts… often challenged by the Supreme Court...

Congressional government (1800-1933)

Woodrow Wilson - Congressional Government (1884)

James Madison, the Federalist, No. 51: “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily pre-dominates.”

Founding fathers needed somebody to represent the country, but not the kings or queens! Determined to limit the power of its leader… Giving the Executive a secondary role… Article II of the Con-

stitution American president started as chief clerk!

The Rise of Presidential Government

Two exceptional presidents Andrew Jackson – the founder of the Democratic

Party; a populist … A. Lincoln - the founder of the Republican Party; War-

time president American presidency went back to the subordinate role

that it played during the 19th century.

What explains weak presidency during this period?

Nomination of presidential candidate….

Of course, that was the intention of Founding Fathers

“caucus system” of nominating candidate - parties’ congressional lead-

ers hand-pick delegates, and delegates select presidential candidates…

In 1830s “national convention system” of nominating presidential candi-

dates (people elect delegates, and delegates select presidential candi-

dates… but the Congressional (party) leaders manipulated the process

and elected the delegates of their choice…)

adoption of “open primary” (no room for Congressional leaders to inter-

vene!)

This means that presidential candidates have a larger so-

cial forces and organized interests that they can commu-

nicate to…

Election of president itself has become direct election - Di-rect election of president gave more plebiscitary aura….more authority and legitimacy…

Technology had a certain impact, too. As communication technol-ogy develops, now they have phones, radios, TVs, … which allow them to reach out directly to people and create popular support groups…

But, the development of presidential power did not mature well into the 19th century! The presidential power was in check!

Presidential Government (1934 – present)

The New Deal and the Beginning of Presidential Gov-ernment

* Importance of New Deal in changing the shape of Ameri-can governance! Watershed event!

Voluntary “delegation of power”

For the Federal government to run a lot of programs, your need new bureaucratic agencies… Increase in the size of bureaucracy and federal agencies under presidential lead-ership (independent of Congress)

The New Deal and FDR forever tilted the American gover-nance away from a Congress-centered government toward a president-centered government.

Cold War and Foreign Policy Presidents

From isolationist to internationalist foreign policy in the post WWII era

Emergence of Cold War consensus

Johnson’s presidential power during the Vietnam War

Imperial Presidency by historian Arthur Schlesigner Jr. (1973)

Post Vietnam Syndrome and Setback of the Presi-dential Power

cf. The War Powers Resolution. In an attempt to gain

more control over such military activities, in 1973 Con-gress passed the War Powers Resolution - over Presi-dent Nixon's veto - requiring that the president consult with Congress when sending American forces into ac-tion. Once they are sent, the president must report to Congress within forty-eight hours. Unless Congress ap-proves the use of troops within sixty days or extends the sixty-day time limit, the forces must be withdrawn.

cf. Executive Agreements. (instead of treaties)

cf. The Case-Zablocki Act (1972) requires the President to re-port on Executive Agreements within sixty days of negotiat-ing them.

cf. INS v. Chadha (1983) – Congress cannot simply overrule an Executive Agreement it does not support but must negotiate with the President on any amendments it wishes to make.

911 and Increase of Presidential Power ??

Authorizing electronic surveillance on US citizens without a war-rant

Imprisoning ‘enemy combatants’, including US citizens, w/o charge or legal representation…

Imperial presidency once again!?