the roots of the rules governing the office of president of the united states

The Roots of the Rules Governing the Office of President of

the United States

• The Royal Governor

• Executive branch and the Articles of Confederation

Qualifications and Terms• Qualifications

• Fear of “constitutional monarch”

• Term limit under Article II

• 22nd Amendment

• Office of V.P.

• Impeachment

• Only president to resign

• Executive privilege

• U.S. v Nixon (1974)

Rules of Succession• First president to die in office

• First president to be assassinated

• Constitutional line of succession

• Presidential Succession Act of 1947

• Twenty-fifth Amendment

• Gerald R. Ford

• Spiro T. Agnew

• Nelson A. Rockefeller

• President can voluntarily relinquish power (example)

The Constitutional Powers of The

President

• Article II

• First sentence of Article II

The Appointment Power• Appointment of ambassadors,

federal judges, executive positions

• Cabinet

Power to Convene Congress

• The State of the Union

• Power to convene Congress only symbolic significance now (why?)

Power to Make Treaties• Advise and consent of the Senate

• Historically, Senate ratified about this percentage of treaties submitted to it by the president

• Woodrow Wilson, Treaty of Versailles, and League of Nations

• Jimmy Carter and Panama Canal Treaty

• “fast track” authority

• Executive agreement

Veto Power• Veto power

• Madison’s argument in Constitutional Convention

• Congressional override

• Line-item veto

• 1996 bill giving president line-item veto

• Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

Power to Preside over Military as Commander in Chief

• Commander in chief

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Pentagon Papers

• The War Powers Act of 1973

Pardoning Power• Pardon

• Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon

The Development and Expansion of

Presidential Power

• Limits on presidential powers

• Factors influencing a president’s use of his powers

• Which president historians rank as best because of leadership

Washington, Adams, Jefferson: Establishing President’s

Authority• Precedents set by presidency of

George Washington1)2)3)4)

• Inherent Powers

• Contributions of John Adams

• Contributions of Thomas Jefferson

• Louisiana Purchase of 1803

1804-1933: Incremental Expansion of Presidential

Powers• Balance of power weighed

heavily in favor of Congress

• Use of presidential power by most presidents from Jefferson to Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Jacksonian democracy

• Lincoln’s “questionable acts”

FDR and the Growth of the Modern Presidency

• Before mass electronic communications, Congress closer to the people

• Public concern over governmental reaction to crisis

• Four terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Great Depression

• New Deal

• FDR’s “Fireside Chats”

• FDR personalized the presidency

• Modern presidency

The Presidential Establishment

The Vice President• John Adams on the vice

presidency

• John Nance Garner

• Dick Cheney

• Walter Mondale

The Cabinet• Cabinet

• No provision for Cabinet in Constitution

• Cabinet Departments

• Most recently created Cabinet office

The First Lady• First Lady

• Hillary Rodham Clinton

• Abigail Adams

• Edith Bolling Galt Wilson

• Eleanor Roosevelt

• Roselyn Carter

• Laura Bush

The Executive Office of the President (EOP)

• The Executive Office of the President

• National Security Council (NSC)

• Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

The White House Staff• Personal assistants to the

president

• Size and growth of president’s White House staff

• Executive Office Building

• Importance of proximity to Oval Office

The President as Policy maker

• FDR claims leadership role for presidency in the legislative process

The President’s Role in Proposing and Facilitation

Legislation• Contract with America and

presumed reassertion of congressional power

• President’s most important power (in addition to the support of the public)

• Divided government

• Honeymoon period and its importance

• patronage

• Tip O’Neill and the Carter White House

• President’s use of political party loyalty

The Budgetary Process and Legislative Implementation

• Importance of budget process for the president

• FDR and the Bureau of the Budget (1939)

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Policy-Making Through Regulation

• Executive order

• Truman ended segregation in the military

• LBJ institutionalized affirmative action as a national policy

• President Bush evisceration of the Presidential Records Act

Presidential Leadership and the

Importance of Public Opinion

Presidential Leadership• Examples of how “great crises make great

presidents”

FDR-The Depression

Lincoln-The Civil War

Bush- 9/11

• Significance of a president’s ability to grasp the importance of leadership style Lincoln and FDR understood that the presidency was a seat of power from which decisions could flow to shape the national destiny

Going Public: Mobilizing Public Opinion

• Bully pulpit-using the presidency as a stage to alter public opinion

• “going public”-going over the heads of Congress to the people to gain their support on an issue

• Bill Clinton’s effective use of the media as candidate and president-spoke to public over 500 times per year through non-traditional venues such as talk shows and prime time news magazines

The Public’s Perception of Presidential Performance

• Cyclical pattern of presidential popularity-president gets high ratings at beginning of term and low ratings at end

• Bill Clinton ended presidency with higher approval rating than any president in recent history because of admissions of guilt and impeachment trial

• George W. Bush “rallying” point due to foreign events reflects common effect due to international events

The Executive The Executive BranchBranchChapter 9Chapter 9

•Bureaucracy an agency or department that help the president do his job

Characteristics of model bureaucracies

1 a chain of command2 a division of labor3 clear lines of authority4 goal orientation that determines rules5 Impersonal application of rules6 Productivity evaluated by rules

•The number of civilian employees directly employed in the executive branch -1.8 million employees

• The number of military employees in the Department of Defense 2 million

• The number of employees of the Postal Service 800,000 ( but less than Wal-Mart )

• The three executive branch departments under George Washington Foreign Affairs, War and Treasury

• Spoils system- winners get the “goodies”

The Civil War and the Growth of Government

•Pension Office- organized to pay benefits to Civil War veterans

• Patronage- rewarding supporters with government jobs

From Spoils System to the Merit System

• Pendleton Act- changed spoils system to the merit system

• Civil service system- program bestowing benefits to government employees

• Merit system- system based on what you know and not who you know

Regulating Economy and Growth of Government in the 20th Century

• Interstate Commerce Commission created to oversee trade between states

• Independent regulatory commissions an agency outside a major executive deapartment

•Sixteenth Amendment established the income tax to help pay for new government regulatory powers

• Hatch Act outlawed political participation by federal employees

• Federal Employees Political Activities Act of 1993- overturned Hatch Act to an extent that donations could be made and fed employees could run for non-partisan offices

Government Workers and Political Involvement

The Modern The Modern BureaucracyBureaucracy

• Ways in which the national government differs from private business government exists for public good, not to make $ and does not have profit motive. Govt gets its $ from taxpayers, not customers and often does not always know to whom they are responsible

• How public sector employees view risks and rewards- don’t make mistakes

• Federal bureaucrats career government employees who work for national government

• General Schedule (GS) ladder that determines pay of bureaucrats

• Competitive examinations tests that determine promotion

Who Are Bureaucrats?

• Types of federal government jobs – policy making appointees

– independent commissioners

– low level patronage positions

• Graying of the federal workforce 2/3rds eligible for retirement today

• Firing a bureacrat?? See chart at bottom of page 323

• Departments- the

• Cabinet departments

• Cabinet secretaries

• Clientele agencies

• Government corporations

Formal Organization

•Independent executive agencies

•Independent regulator commission

•Selecting members of boards and commissions

How the How the Bureaucracy Bureaucracy

WorksWorks

•Congressional delegation of Article I, section 8, powers

•Implementation

•Iron triangles

•Issue networks

•Interagency councils

•Policy coordinating committees

•Administrative discretion•Rule-making•Regulations•1964 Administrative Act three part rule-making procedures

Making Policy

•Administrative discretion

•Quasi-judicial

Making Making Agencies Agencies

AccountableAccountable

•President has what authority? (table 9.3)

•Executive order

Executive Control

•Congress has what authority? (table 9.3)

•Investigatory powers

•Police patrol oversight

Congressional Control

•Fire alarm oversight

•Power of the purse

•General Accounting Office (now General Accountability Office)

•Federal judiciary has what authority? (table 9.3)

•Injunctions

•Specialized courts

Judicial Control