1. The Presidency The Logic of American Politics Chapter 7
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The Logic of American Politics
Chapter 7

2. Framers and the Presidency
The Framers designed the presidency to:
Allow for quick and concerted action during times of national crisis.
Have power recede when crisis over.
Rejected a plural executive.

3. The Presidency & the Constitution
President’s duties/authority found in ARTICLE II:
Commander in chief.
Chief diplomat.
Executive.
Legislator.
Constitutional powers ambiguous and limited, yet president is considered quite powerful.
Authority derived exclusively from public laws.

4. The President As Commander in Chief and Head of State
The Constitution: president is commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces.
Broad license.
Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War.
Founders had some difficulty giving one individual control over the military.
Checked the president’s powers by making it so ONLY CONGRESS can declare war.
Presidents have “first mover” advantage.
War Power’s Act is a hollow check.
War Powers Act Requires that the president inform Congress within forty-eight hours of committing troops abroad in a military action. Moreover, the operation must end within sixty days unless Congress approves an extension.
FDR with Churchill and
Stalin at Yalta -- National
Archives.

5. The President As Head of State
President: broad authority to transact diplomatic affairs.
The most important limitation: a two-thirds majority of the Senate ratifies treaties.
Senate rejected WWI peace treaty.
Wilson’s League of Nations.
Not as limiting a check today due to the use of executive agreements.

6. Executive Agreements Unlike a treaty, an executive agreement:
Cannot supersede U.S. law.
Remains “in force” as long as the parties find their interests well served by it.
Mainstay of foreign relations.
Checked by Congress and the courts.
NAFTA initialing ceremony, October 1992.
From Wikipedia: An executive agreement: one of three mechanisms by which the United States enters into binding international agreements. They are considered treaties as the term is used under international law in that they bind both the United States and a foreign state. However, they are not considered treaties as the term is used under United States Constitutional law, because the United States Constitution's treaty procedure requires the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and these agreements are made solely by the President of the United States.
An executive agreement can only be negotiated and entered into through the president's authority (1) in foreign policy, (2) as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, or (3) from a prior act of Congress. For instance, it is as commander-in-chief that the President negotiates and enters into status of forces agreements (SOFAs), which govern the treatment and disposition of U.S. forces stationed in other nations. An executive agreement, however, cannot go beyond the president's constitutional powers. If an agreement was in the competence of the United States Congress, it would need to become a congressional-executive agreement or a treaty with Senate advice and consent. If an agreement was neither within the competence of Congress nor within the competence of the President (as for example an agreement which would affect powers reserved to the states), it could still be adopted by the President/Senate method but must not conflict with the United States Constitution. One should note that in contrast with many other nations (particularly in Europe), the United States does not consider international agreements to take precedence over domestic law.
Executive agreements are distinctly American and are a product of the Constitution. The Case Act requires the president to notify Congress of any executive agreements that are formed.

7. The President As Chief Executive
Article II of the Constitution: “the executive power shall be vested in a president of the united states of America.”
Does not define this power.
Section 2: power to appoint officials.
Congress allowed to create executive branch.
Executive privilege.
United States v. Nixon.
Executive orders.
Formal instructions from the president.
Most arise from the authority and responsibilities explicitly delegated to the president by law.
On the subject of direct administrative authority, Section 2 is more revealing in what it leaves unsaid. It states simply that from time to time the president may “require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officers in each of the executive departments.” Then in Section 3 the president is told to take care that the laws “be faithfully executed.” Executive orders: Used in managing the federal government. Has the force of law until the president or a successor retracts it, Congress nullifies it, or a federal court rules it unconstitutional. Used most frequently to establish an executive branch agency, modify bureaucratic rules or actions, change decision-making procedures, and give substance and force to statutes. Examples: Applied the patient’s “bill of rights” to all federal health programs; directed federal agencies to avoid any action that would degrade the condition of coral reef ecosystems within U.S. waters.

8. The President As Legislator
The Constitution gives presidents only a modest role in the legislative arena.
May call Congress into special session.
Veto laws (Article I).
Must report “from time to time” to Congress with State of the Union address.
Yet modern presidents attempt to direct American policy by promoting a legislative agenda.
They must use their few constitutional tools as well as their ability to mobilize public support and their PARTY.

9. The Nineteenth-Century Presidency
Presidents assumed a lesser role.
They did not play a leadership role in domestic policy formulation.
Thus their accomplishments were limited to their responses to wars, rebellions, or other national crises.
A clerk and a commander….
Era of cabinet government.
Cabinet members important.
Modern cabinet
Limited political clout.
During this period a large part of the president’s schedule was devoted to filling vacancies in a growing bureaucracy -- this even included interviewing job seekers, listening to their party sponsors, and signing appointment letters.

10. Parties and Elections
During the nineteenth century, the political party was more important than the individual candidate.
Presidential elections were the focal point for the national parties’ efforts.
Winning the presidency usually meant the party took over Congress as well.
Congress was the dominant branch.
Until the 1890s Americans voted with paper ballots supplied by party workers or printed in newspaper advertisements. The voter simply took the ballot to the voting desk and public submitted it. It was also not easy to vote for candidates from different parties.

11. The Modern Presidency
As government expanded during the twentieth century, so did the workload of the president.
With additional responsibilities, the chief executive gained more power.
Congress delegated responsibilities when necessary.
Oversight of the executive was a burden.
Nature of rule-making authority.
Congress can give a little or a lot depending on how law written.
President is an “agent” of Congress.
Role of budgeting.
1921 Budgeting and Accounting Act.

12. Presidential Assertions of Authority
Presidents have also tried to pull authority into the White House.
Unilateral assertions of authority.
Or by centralizing administration.
Theodore Roosevelt -- gag rule.
Taft -- extension of gag rule.
Franklin D. Roosevelt -- central clearance and the Bureau of the Budget.
Ronald Reagan.
Overall, presidents can pull in authority, but they cannot overreach.

13. Modern Presidents As Legislators
Today, Congress gives the president’s legislative proposals serious consideration.
Expect the president to advise them about problems with current policy and administration.
90 percent of presidents’ initiatives are considered by some congressional committee or subcommittee.
Presidents must work with party allies.
Must also deal with divided government at times.
During the past half century, unified party control has occurred less frequently than divided government.

14. Modern Presidents As Legislators
How do presidents deal with divided government?
Pull decisions into the White House.
Carefully screen appointees to federal agencies.
Utilize the veto.
Go public (engaging in intensive public relations to promote their policies to voters).
Other strategies for promoting their legislative agenda:
Veto bargaining.
Going public.

15. Emergence of the Institutional Presidency
As an organization the presidency began modestly.
Washington used his secretary of state, Jefferson, to help him with correspondence.
By the early 1800s the number of staff working in and around the White House was less than a dozen.
When FDR became president there were about fifty staff members. (Maintenance, switchboard, and mailroom duties.)
1937 the President’s Committee on Administrative Management (Brownlow Committee).
Executive Office of the President (EOP).
Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

16. The OMB is one of the most important agencies in the EOP
It is responsible for:
Creation of the annual federal budget.
Monitoring agency performance.
Compiling recommendations from the departments on enrolled bills (bills that have been passed in identical form in both chambers of Congress).
Administering central clearance.
Another important agency within the EOP is the National Security Council.
Its statutaory responsibility appears modest: to compile reports and advice from the State and Defense Departments and the Join Chiefs of Staff and to keep the president well informed on international affairs. Yet the national security sometimes assumes a role conducting foreign policy close to that traditionally associated with the secretary of state.

17. National Security Council
Its statutory responsibility appears modest:
To compile reports and advice from the State and Defense Departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff .
To keep the president well informed on international affairs.
Sometimes the national security advisor assumes a role close to that traditionally associated with the secretary of state.

18. White House Office
What began as a small, informal group of aides has grown into a large, compartmentalized, multilayered bureaucracy.
Jimmy Carter’s reorganization has crystallized somewhat into the standard organization of the office:
Chief of staff.
Specialists.

19. Presidents As Strategic Actors
Presidents have more authority today.
But there are higher demands and expectations from the public.
The demands of the job outnumber the resources.
Role of opportunity and skill and luck.
Framers mandated that presidents be leaders yet gave the tools to be no more than clerks.