terms of interest	express powers	staff (administration)
Impeachment	delegated powers	War Powers Resolution (or Act)
Veto	inherent powers	"political outsider"
Pocket veto	executive order	"bully pulpit"
Comander-in-Chief	executive privilege	"kitchen cabinet"
	informal power

Ch. 13

The Presidency - "He's just the President…"

Key concepts from the Text:

- Presidential power is rooted in the Constitution. - The powers exercised by all modern presidents far outstrip what the Constitution provides. - The modern president is served by numerous office and departs (more than 10,000 people are presidential appointees and staff members.) - To get things done, presidents rely on a variety of political resources, including elections, political parties, interest groups, the media, and public opinion.

"He (and some day She) is only Human"

The president, like all of us, is only human. That is true of Washington, Lincoln and Clinton, even our current president. Humans all have limits. That is an axiom of our very existence.

The media and most academics focus on the president.

But how much power does George W. have over you or me? The press's focus on the President says more about their laziness but it also says something about the human need for a "leader."

Many others in our lives have more power over us than the President. Even in the time of "war" there are so many more people around un, in our lives, who actually have more power over us than the President.

Political Science is the study of power. The lessons we can learn apply to us in our lives and jobs as well as any president.

You should think about who has power over you ....                                         and what are the limits of that power.

The President is not the Pope or some other religious figure.

He's not even a Prime Minister. In most parliamentary systems, the PM is from the same party as the majority in Parliament. Most of our history, we have had divided government (when one party dominates the executive branch and the other party dominates the legislative branch - like now).

The President is just a president , the constitution limits the "chief executive" and most historians agree, the founders never really planned that the executive branch would be what it is today. But do their plans (or our view of them) change reality?

As we discussed the first week of class, formal authority isn't the same as informal power - the ability to persuade.

To review the Informal Power and the Tactics of Persuasion see the first week's web lecture page.

No one has unlimited power .

You and I may refer to the president as "the most powerful man in the free world" (wherever that is). But most presidents, after leaving office, complain that they were surrounded by people who wouldn't let them do what the people elected them to do.

If we want to define one's power, titles don't tell the whole story.  If we seek to ascertain a clear definition of one's power we find that it is situational.

The easiest way to define informal power is to look at the constraints on that power. Constraints are the limits of one's power and the forces that limit one's power.

Remember the "Six Tactics of Persuasion" were originally developed to study presidents. But I think it applies to all of us. (see Chapter 1 online lecture to review the tactics)

Everything has Limits:

Human passion, human compassion, water, air, us, the planet, the sun, everything is finite. It has limits. It is limited.

Life does always find a way to survive but you and me and everyone else's life ... it is finite.

In political science we call them "constraints."

Some con traits, like your friend taking your keys if you're drunk, are good. Other constraints are not. It depends, right?

Many political scientists have identified   Eleven Constraints on the President . If we use our imagination, these eleven constraints can also be applied to our own personal power.

    The first four are clearly structural constrains . They are limits built into the system. They are designed as constraints on the president.

    The first two constraints on the president are, of course the other two branches of government (checks and balances…).

1.  Congress   - More than 500 politicians trying to stand out, get reelected and compromise. Congress has difficulty constraining a president, because it seems people want to support the president and people love to blame the congress in general (although they re-elect their representative at more than 90% of the time.)

2.  The Courts - who can rule anyway they want, but whose rules can only be enforced by the other two branches.

    The next one is a clear example of "decentralized power" as a major part of our governmental structure:

3. Federalism  - a great constraint on the President.

The fourth constraint really doesn't matter as much as one might think.

4.  National elections. Once the President is elected, how many more elections really matter to him? Only one more, his own. The "off year elections" that take place the first two years of each four year presidential term, always see the president's party lose some seats in the House and Senate.

    We all have Structural Constraints on our lives.  Like the above constraints, these are the "set-up" of our lives, the rules, our jobs, etc.  Your specific circumstances limits what you can plan to do and realistically hope to do.  That is not to say you are stuck, but you have to start with a realistic assessment of the structural limits in your life. Think about some of them in your life. This may be very personal, but probably worth your time and thought.

    But the Functional Constraints on our lives are "more real" to us.  They effect our behavior more, and are in our minds more, than the structural constraints.

The next constraint is much talked about, but rarely connected to policy choices.

5 . Public opinion. This does not drive policy, rather, it is far easier to change public opinion in favor of a policy, any policy. Public opinion is not always the opinion of the hundreds of thousands of functional elites in our system.

    In our lives, we may hear other's opinions, we may even think about them a great deal, but if we are dominated by other's opinions, are we truly free adults?

6. Foreign Powers - Others can, depending upon the situation, constrain us a great deal.  If the President wants to be a "peace maker" but the warring factions don't want peace - peace isn't going to happen. Order can be (temporarily) imposed. Peace can only be "grown."  

    There are outside forces in our lives.  The weather and the tectonic plates are just a few obvious examples.  Strangers we meet everyday impact our lives in immeasurable ways.

7.  Interest Groups. As we've discussed, they are the "heart" of the system) especially for the pluralists). I've called them "the oil: the fuel and lubricant of the system." But don't forget the old (cowboy?) saying:  "Ya dance with the one who brung ya." Interest Groups who support a President have trouble switching and supporting the opposition. Clinton has done more for the homosexual community than any other president. When he announced he could not support same sex marriages what could they do, support the GOP, many of whom think homosexuality is sinful and should be eradicated?

    Interest groups are like our friends, if they support us, great, if not, maybe they are not our friends.

    The next three constraints on the President are the most important and relevant to the President and to our study of our own informal power.

8 . His own staff or administration.   The President's staff is close to ten thousand people (about half female). Bush's and Reagan had over 10,000 staffers and their staffs had a higher percentage of white males. Clinton's staff is slightly smaller and "looks" much more like the American people than have the staffs of previous presidents. Clinton's staff is on average the youngest staff ever.

    The President can arrange his staff any way he sees fit. Many, but not all of his staff have to be confirmed by the Senate. About 3000 of them work "in the bureaucracy" as political appointees. We will talk about them next week

    The remaining staff does constituent work, press work, policy work, or work "on the Hill." (To review the "iron triangle" See Ch 11 on Interest Groups, click here .)

    Peaceful transition of power.

The U.S. is the country in the world with the longest string of change of governments without violence. No other country comes close. Think about what over 200 years of orderly and regular civilian change of governments. That sense gives Americans a unique view of the world, that's for sure!

The President's most important decisions are who he hires for his administration. And this is all done in less than three months, (called "the Transition").

Click here for the story of the transition of power from presidents; HW Bush to Clinton to GW Bush to Obama.

    Obviously in our lives we don't have a "staff" but this role is often played by our close friends, spouse and families.

9.  Rapidly changing social forces - this is a fancy way of saying:  "things change."  What historians called "the times," or "accepted norms of the day" change. Things change. And presidents can't really control that. Remember Gary Hart? He had an affair and it destroyed his political life. Clinton has an affair with Jennifer Flowers and gets elected. He denies an affair and them admits it and his popularity goes higher than ever before.

    Things change. Public attitudes about marijuana, abortion, homosexuality, ethnic tolerance, and a thousand other issues… all these things change over time and we (and the president) have little control over them.

10. Informational Limitations . At first, this seems like we are saying that the President can't know everything (nor can we). That, of course is true. But is the problem a lack of information? No, it's too much information… too much conflicting or confusing information. There's something else to think about.

11.  The state of the  economy in general can really limit a president (and us). A good economy may help a president, but a bad economy always gets pinned on the president. And do we elect the President to be president of the economy? Or do we believe in the "power of the market"?

    So the presidents is surrounded by limits and so are we.  Those limits help us define our power.  In many ways, they, along with our actions, define who we are.

The Wars Powers Act (or Resolution)

The Wars Powers Resolution is what opponents call the War Powers Act. It was passed after the Vietnam war as a way of constraining the Presidents' ability to make and conduct war. For a brief discussion of this, click here

"I'm an Outsider!"

One common idea in all Presidents' campaigns over the last three to five decades has been the idea of "outsider."  Teddy Roosevelt is the ultimate example.  But Carter , Reagan , Clinton , Perot and many others have tried to paint themselves as different from "those guys in Washington." This is a popular theme. People seem to want a President who is an outsider, like that will fix "the problem." But how can an outsider run for President? Doesn't just the process of running for President (which is at least a year and in some cases a life long process) make one "an insider" (whatever that means)? Further, why would we want an outsider , if we could find one? Our system is based on infighting, compromise and consensus building. Can an outsider do that?  Is George Bush really an outsider?

 

some things to think about Remember any of these may be on the final exam!

1. Would giving the public direct access to watch presidential press briefings live and successors over the internet increase public awareness, information or participation? Are there other ways the internet could contribute to the democratization of the presidency? 2. Do recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere enhance the need for a more engaged Congress on foreign policy? Or should the presidency as an institution be granted greater political latitude in the war on terror? 3. How much do we need to know about the personal lives of our presidents? Does what goes on in their personal lives affect their ability to govern? Have our most effective presidents also been the most exemplary? Have the most moral been the most effective? 4. Why do you think the American president is called the most powerful leader in the world? If that is true, what special responsibilities does that carry? Should we limit the president's role in world affairs? Why or why not? 5. Presidents have expressed, delegated, and inherent powers. Which do you think most accounts for the powers of the presidency? 6. How is the American president limited or constrained in his powers to act as he pleases? Why must the president resort to the "power of the bully pulpit" to accomplish his goals? What are the formal and informal resources available to the president as he attempts to persuade others to help meet his goals?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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