The American ExecutiveA clerkship?

Freewrite

How much power should the president have? What, specifically, are the key powers that you think the president should have? Do you think the president has too much power in the current political system?

You will hand in this freewrite for participation credit.

Founding of the Presidency

• Fears of executive power

• Fears of chaos from weak executive

• Founders disagreed about how powerful the president should be

Debates and Ambiguities

• “a single man would feel the greatest responsibility and administer the public affairs best.” (John Rutledge)

• “the executive magistracy [i]s nothing more than an institution for carrying the will of the Legislature into effect” (Roger Sherman)

More debates among the framers

• I “wish that at the end of the four years they had made [the president] forever ineligible a second time” (Thomas Jefferson)

• [I wish the convention had] “given more power to the President and less to the Senate” (John Adams)

Opposition to the executive

“Your president may easily become a King. If your American chief be a man of ambition, how easy it is for him to render himself absolute: The army is in his hands, and if he be a man of address it will be attached to him…and what have you to oppose this force? What will then become of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue?”

--Patrick Henry, opposing ratification by the state of Virginia

Hamilton’s Defense

“Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property…to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, faction and anarchy.”– Federalist Papers No. 70

Founding of the Presidency

• Fears of executive power

• Fears of chaos from weak executive

• Founders disagreed about how powerful the president should be

• Result: vague, shared presidential powers

The President’s Constitutional Powers

• The President 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;

• he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

• He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law

• The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

• …He may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper;

• he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers;

• he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,

• and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States

• --Article II, US Constitution

Historical Debates Over Presidential Powers

• Can the president declare neutrality?• When can the president veto a bill?• Is the president the best representative of the people?• Does the president have extra-constitutional powers?• Can the president go to war without asking

Congress?

Richard Neustadt

• The constitutional presidency is a clerkship

• Presidential power is the power to persuade

• The power to persuade is the power to bargain

Neustadt’s argument

• Three cases of command are unusual cases

• Conditions for command aren’t always met

• A command is a failure of leadership

Why persuasion is necessary

“When one man shares authority with another, but does not gain or lose his job upon the other’s whim, his willingness to act upon the urging of the other turns on whether he conceives the action to be right for him. The essence of a President’s persuasive task is to convince such men that what the White House wants of them is what they ought to do for their sake and on their authority.”

--Neustadt, Presidential Power, P. 30

Two resources to make persuasion effective

• Professional reputation

• Public prestige

Sources of Presidential Power

• The Constitution• Congress• Courts• Political parties• Federalism• Bureaucracy• The public• The media• International affairs and events • Skill & bargaining

Constraints on Presidential Power

• The Constitution• Congress• Courts• Political parties• Federalism• Bureaucracy• The public• The media• International affairs and events • Skill & bargaining