Chapter 10 – The Executive Department

Executive

• No democratic presidential models when founders created office
  • Did not want a king
  • Strong leader vs. weak executive?
  • Goal was chief executive whose powers balanced Congress

Qualifications of  a President

• Article II, Section 1
  • Must be a natural born citizen
  • Must be at least 35 years old
  • Must be a resident within the United States for at least 14 years

• Process of becoming president
  • Nominated by party
  • Win a majority of electoral votes
    • Can win without winning popular vote
    • George W. Bush
  • If no Electoral College majority, then selected by House of Representatives

The Many Roles of the President

• Head of State
• Chief Executive
• Commander in Chief
• Chief Diplomat
• Chief Legislator

As Head of State

• Head of state duties are mostly symbolic
  • Decorating war heroes
  • Dedications
  • Receiving heads of state
  • Official state visits
  • Official representative

As Chief Executive

• Chief executive: constitutionally bound to enforce acts of Congress, judgments of federal courts, and treaties signed by U.S.
  • Signing statements
  • Powers of appointment and removal
  • Power to grant reprieves and pardons

As Commander in Chief

• Commander in Chief: civilian commander of U.S. armed forces
  • Wartime powers (including nuclear strike authority)
  • War Powers Resolution (1973)
  • Continued expansion of powers
    • U.S. PATRIOT Act
    • Drone strikes

As Chief Diplomat

• Chief Diplomat: the president dominates American foreign policy
  • Diplomatic recognition
  • Negotiates treaties
  • Executive agreements

As Chief Legislator

• Chief Legislator: presidents recommend legislation they judge necessary or expedient
  • State of the Union message
  • Getting legislation passed
  • Vetoing legislation
    • Must act on every bill
    • Pocket veto
    • Congressional override

Other Presidential Powers

• Other presidential powers
  • Expressed powers
    • Constitutional
    • Statutory
  • Inherent powers
    • Depend on Constitutional statements:
    • “the executive Power shall be vested in a President”
    • “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”

The President as Party Chief and Super Politician

• The president as chief of party
• Power to persuade
• Constituencies and public approval
  • Presidential constituencies
  • Public approval
    • Rally round the flag
    • “Going public” for support

Special Uses of Presidential Power

• Emergency powers
  • Lincoln and suspension of civil liberties
  • FDR and mobilization for war
  • Truman and nationalizing steel plants
  • Bush and warrantless wiretaps
• Executive orders
  • Have force of law
  • Must be published in Federal Register
• Executive privilege
  • Withholding information from or refusing to appear before Congress or courts
  • Claim national security concerns
  • Critics say improperly used to shield executive branch
• Limiting executive privilege
  • United States v. Nixon
  • Clinton affair
  • Courts did NOT uphold these claims of privilege
• Abuses of executive power & impeachment
  • Articles I and II authorize House and Senate to remove president, vice president or other civil officers for committing “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”
  • House impeaches (accuses)
  • Senate conducts trial
  • No president ever impeached and removed from office

The Executive Organization

• The Cabinet
  • Advisory group appointed by president
  • Fifteen executive departments
  • Kitchen cabinet may replace as major advisors
    • Informal advisors, often friends of the president
  • Presidential use of cabinets is discretionary
• Executive Office of the President
  • Established during FDR administration
  • Includes:
    • White House Office (headed by chief of staff)
    • Office of Management and Budget
    • National Security Council
    • Office of the Vice President
    • “Policy tsars”: issue specialists

The Vice Presidency

• Little constitutional power
  • Only formal duty is presiding over Senate 

• The vice president’s job
  • Strengthening the ticket
  • Supporting the president
• Presidential succession
  • Eight vice presidents have become president upon president’s death
  • Presidential incapacity not addressed in original Constitution
• The Twenty-fifth Amendment
  • Establishes procedures for filling presidential and vice presidential vacancies
  • Provisions for presidential disability
• When the vice presidency becomes vacant
  • President nominates, Congress confirms
    • Nixon → Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew
    • Ford → Nelson Rockefeller
  • Succession Act of 1947 (if both president and vice president die)
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