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Powers of the presidents essay
Evolution of the united states presidency
Evolution of the united states presidency
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The President and Presidential Powers The presidency of the United States has never stopped evolving and is more powerful today than the framers of the constitution ever would have imagined. The President of the United States is a crucial pawn in the way our government runs, functions and operates, and is the embodiment of the people and its nation. The president by far has the most influence on the direction our country shifts in, and is an important political figure. When we think of the president, we often think of one person that is in charge of our country, but the presidential role that we have today has grown into a complex and large executive organization (Bardes, B. A., Shelley, M. C., & Schmidt, S. W. 355). Whig and Stewardship …show more content…
By the twentieth century, the Whig theory was replaced by a less stringent theory, a broader theory known as the stewardship theory by Theodore Roosevelt. The stewardship theory was a more assertive presidency that disagreed with the limited powers granted to the president only under the constitution. This theory presented the idea that the president has extended authority and power as long as it was not forbidden by the constitution or law. Out of these two presidential theories, the stewardship theory ended up being the approach that has stayed true to presidential authority today ("Presidency, the (Social Science))." Modern Presidency There have been some powerful and strong presidents over the years that really have influenced the expansion of the modern presidential role. For example, Theodore Roosevelt defined his legislative powers by sending messages to congress, and aimed at increasing the international power of The United States. There have been many other presidents, such as Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln who managed to expand the power of presidency as well ("Presidency, The (Social Science))." When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he ushered the nation out of turbulent times such as the Great Depression …show more content…
The president has five major constitutional roles which include acting as the head of state, chief executive, commander in chief of the armed forces, chief diplomat, and chief legislator. As a president acting as the head of the state means taking on a symbolic and ceremonial role, and is the face and symbol of the nation. As chief executive, the president is required to enforce the acts of congress, along with treaties signed, has power to nominate and appoint government officials with the advise and consent on the senate. With this appointment power also comes the power to remove officials from office as well. With this role the president also has power to grant pardons and reprieves for offense against the US. Being the commander in chief gives the president militia powers, meaning that the president has the pants on when dealing with military matters. He also has the power to declare war, and can undertake authority over the National Guard (357-361). The War Powers Resolution is relating to the military and is defined as “a law passed in 1973 spelling out the conditions under which the president can commit troops without congressional approval” (361). The chief diplomat role the president possesses allows him to negotiate treaties with the advise and consent of the senate, and preside and exercise control over
Examining the conceptualizations and theories of Neustadt and Skowronek’s in comparative perspective, this essay makes the principal argument that both of these theories only represent partial explanations of how success and efficiency is achieved in the context of the Presidency. With Neustadt focusing saliently on the President’s micro-level elite interactions and with Skowronek adopting a far more populist and public opinion-based framework, both only serve to explain some atomistic facets of the Presidency. As such, neither is truly collectively exhaustive, or mutually exclusive of the other, in accounting for the facets of the Presidency in either a modern day or historical analytical framework. Rather, they can best be viewed as complementary theories germane to explaining different facets of the Presidency, and the different strengths and weaknesses of specific Administrations throughout history.
As the President of the United States, a president have powers that other members of the government do not. Presidential power can be defined in numerous ways. Political scientists Richard Neustadt and William Howell give different views on what is presidential power. These polarized views of presidential powers can be used to compare and contrast the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Of the most powerful people in the world, the President of the United States of America hits the top of the list. Even though the policy agendas that presidents set as they take office often go unfulfilled, the office of President is still one of the most envied spots to have. But why could this be? It is because the United States is the most powerful nation in the world and with the President as the leader, he is said to have the most power in the world ("Top Ten Most Powerful Countries in the World"). With power comes responsibility and with this position he must govern a country while abiding by the rules.
The U.S. president is a person deemed to be the most fitting person to lead this country through thick and thin. It’s been such a successful method that it has led to 43 individual men being put in charge of running this country. However, this doesn’t mean that each one has been good or hasn’t had an issue they couldn’t resolve when in office. But no matter what, each one has left a very unique imprint on the history and evolution of this nation. However when two are compared against one another, some rather surprising similarities may be found. Even better, is what happens when two presidents are compared and they are from the same political party but separated by a large numbers of years between them. In doing this, not only do we see the difference between the two but the interesting evolution of political idea in one party.
Congress has the power to declare war and raise and support the armed forces (Article I, Section 8), while the president is the Commander in Chief (Article II, Section 2) (War Powers Resolution, Wikimedia). It is generally agreed that the Commander in Chief role gives the president power to repel attacks against the United States and makes him responsible for leading the armed forces. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, the United States found itself involved for many years in undeclared wars (War Powers Resolution, Wikimedia). Many members of Congress became concerned with the erosion of congressional authority to decide when the United States should become involved in a war or the use of armed forces that might lead to war. The Senate and the House of Representatives achieved the 2/3 majority required to pass this joint resolution over President Nixon s veto on November 7, 1973.
The president is indirectly elected by the Electoral College to a fixed four year term and is limited to only two terms in office (O’Neil, 2007). The President has a lead role in foreign policy and is the commander in chief of the mil...
The Evolution of the Power of the Presidency The views of the presidency by the first sixteen presidents varied widely but all of their actions set precedents for their successors to use, expand, or even curtail the power of the office. Some believed in the Whig theory of strict adherence to the constitution, while others believed the president was the steward of the people with a loose interpretation of it. The power of the office expanded through the years, however it only expanded as far as the public and congress allowed. George Washington was the first President of the United States of America and realizing this he acted carefully and deliberately, aware of the need to build an executive structure that could accommodate future presidents.
This position requires the management of the Country by implementing the laws, nominations of officials, grant pardons, serve as Commander-in-Chief of the military, veto lows passed by Congress, and negotiate treaties. The President is also responsible proposing yearly budgets and helping boost economic development. The many divided tasks between Congress and the Presidency has made it
The president has a significant amount of power; however, this power is not unlimited, as it is kept in check by both the judicial and legislative branches. The president is held responsible for passing legislation that will improve the lives of everyday Americans, even though he shares his legislative powers with Congress. The sharing of power acts as an impediment to the president’s ability to pass legislation quickly and in the form it was originally conceived. However, Americans do not take this into account when judging a president, as they fully expect him to fulfill all of the promises he makes during his campaign. By making promises to pass monumental legislation once elected without mentioning that Congress stands as an obstacle that must be hurdled first, the president creates unrealistic expectations of what he can fulfill during his time in office (Jenkins-Smith, Silva, and Waterman, 2005). A president is expected to have the characteristics that will allow him to efficiently and effectively lead the nation and to accomplish the goals he set during his campaign (Jenkins-Smith et al., 2005). There have been a handful of presidents that have been immortalized as the ideal person to lead the United States and if a president does not live up to these lofty expectations the American public will inevitably be disappointed. Since every president is expected to accomplish great things during his presidency, he is forced to created and project a favorable image through unrealistic promises. The combination of preconceived ideas of the perfect president and the various promises made by presidential candidates during their campaign create unrealistic expectations of the president by the American public.
Political scientists have continually searched for methods that explain presidential power and success derived from using that power effectively. Five different approaches have been argued including the legal approach, presidential roles approach, Neustadtian approach, institutional approach, and presidential decision-making approach. The legal approach says that all power is derived from a legal authority (U.S. Constitution). The presidential roles approach contends that a president’s success is derived from balancing their role as head of state and head of government. The Neustadtian approach contends that “presidential power is the power to persuade“ (Neustadt, p. 11). The institutional approach contends that political climate and institutional relations are what determines presidential power. The last approach, decision-making, provides a more psychological outlook that delves into background, management styles, and psychological dispositions to determine where a president’s idea of power comes from. From all of these, it is essential to study one at a time in order to analyze the major components of each approach for major strengths and weaknesses.
Theodore Roosevelt was President for 8 years from 1901-1908 at the beginning of the 20th century. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidency would set the tone for Presidents of the 20th century. From Theodore Roosevelt’s “Speak softly and carry a big stick” to Theodore Roosevelt’s conservationist policies the Roosevelt Presidency would go on to expand the powers of the Federal Government like no president ever had. Theodore Roosevelt set the precedent for expanding the Federal Government that most of the Presidents after him would follow. From his fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Lyndon B. Johnson and all the other presidents of the 20th century. Those Presidents
The Presidents’ role is popularly defined by their sweeping economic policies leading America to become a superpower. Ronald Reagan the 40th President was one of America’s most famous modern Republican Presidents and is credited with providing the base to the modern Republican Party ideals. One of the most famous triumphs for Reagan was his supply-side economics policies or commonly known as Reaganomics (Cato.org, 2013). Reaganomics was the policy of reducing taxes in order to spur growth, which would come from the trickled down profits from corporations to the common people. The application of Reaganomics was able to grow the economy by 3.2 percent rather than a 2.8 percent growth in the Ford-Carter era, it was also able to grow the Family median income by 4,000 dollars while it lost 1,500 in post-Reagan era (Cato.org, 2013). One fatal flaw of Reaganomics was it did not account for people not being able to save their money and as a result on average savings decreased ...
Understanding and evaluating presidents’ performance often poses challenges for political experts. The nation votes one president at the time and each presidency faces different tests. The environments surrounding a presidency have a tremendous impact on the success and failure of that presidency. In addition, the president exercises his power through a check and balance system embody in the Constitution. As stated in (Collier 1959), the Constitution created a government of “separated institutions sharing power.” As a result, a president works with others institutions of the government to shape the nation’s agenda. Thus, determining a presidential performance becomes difficult, especially when it comes to comparing the performance among presidencies.
There are four theories of presidential power. Each of the four theories describes the nature and scope of presidential power in a different view.
In my opinion I think the President is the most powerful and the most influential today. There are many ways to be a great president and some of the ways you can be one is have many accomplishments, you got to have really good crisis management skills because when something goes wrong who do people look at for help and to stand up and be the leader, as the president you have to have great character because many people don’t want a president thats always grumpy or mean, and one last one is have so great leadership skills everyone will go to the president so be a great leader and not to be weak and to be a strong leader.