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Outlines Chap. 7, 8

Chapter 7:

Roots of the Office of President of the United States

 Earliest example of executive power: royal governor in colonies

o Distrusted
 After declaring independence, the thought of a strong chief executive made
people wary and so the office was reduced to a symbolic post
 In New York, people directly elected the governor and gave him power to
pardon, execute law, and command militia
 No such thing as executive branch in AoC
o President had no actual authority
 Eventually created branch in constitution, but was major stumbling block and was
much debated about
 Presidential qualifications
o Natural-born citizen of the US
o 35 years old
o Resident for 14 years or longer
 First president sought reelection only once and started tradition of two terms,
solidified by 22nd amendment
 Impeachment – bring criminal charges to president
 Rules of succession
o Vice president’s purpose – if prez dies, take over
o 25th amendment directs prez to pick a new VP should a vacancy occur

Constitutional Powers of the Prez

 Found in Article II
 Appointment Power
o Authorized to appoint ambassadors, public ministers and consuls,
Supreme Court judges, other offices
o With advice and consent of Senate
 Power to Convene Congress
o Const. requires prez to inform Congress periodically of a “State of the
Union” address
o Prez can convene either house or both houses on special occasions
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 Senate and chief executive both have power to make treaties

o Checked by Senate, who must approve all treaties
o Can also receive ambassadors
 Allows president to recognize existence of other nations
o About 90% of treaties are approved
 Have only rejected 21 treaties
o President can unsign treaties
o Executive agreements sidestep advice and consent of Senate
 Power to veto
o Reject bills passed by both houses
o Can be overridden with 2/3 vote in both houses
 Power to preside over military as Commander in Chief
o Congress has authority to declare war, while prez can fight it
 Pardoning power
o A check on judicial power
o Can grant reprieves or pardons before or after conviction

The Development and Expansion of Presidential Power

 Constitution hasn’t changed but the power of the President has

 George Washington set important precedents
o Established primacy of national government by using authority to quell the
Whiskey Rebellion
o Practiced regular meetings with advisors
o Prominent role in conduct of foreign affairs
o Claimed powers of presidency as basis for establishing neutrality during
British and French war
 Incremental Expansion of Prez Powers: 1809-1933
o Andrew Jackson – first of non-elite to win
o Abraham Lincoln
 Suspended habeas corpus, which allows those in prison to petition
for release, citing need to jail suspicious
 Expanede size of army
 Ordered blockade w/o approval
 Close US mail to inhibit correspondence
 Creating Modern Presidency
o Start can be traced to FDR, who led nation thru Great Depression
 Made the bureaucracy and stuff
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 New Deal – bold and controversial programs designed to invigorate

economy
 Internet and stuff

The Presidential Establishment

 Vice President
o For years, considered obscure
o Chosen to balance the presidential ticket
o FDR, a liberal NYer, chose a conservative Texan as VP
o Obama chose Joe Biden for his foreign policy experience
 The Cabinet
o Team of advisors for president
o Hand picked by prez usually
 First lady
o Depends on what she wants to do
o Edit Bolling Gait Wilson
 When Woodrow Wilson was partly paralyzed, she became his
surrogate and ran the country
o Eleanor Roosevelt
 Wrote newspaper column
 Traveled and lectured
 Worked on Dem. Party matters
 Raised six children
 Became a delegate to UN
 Headed JFK’s Commission on Status of Women
o Michelle Obama
 Prioritizes health and physical fitness
 Planted organic White House vegetable garden
 Visits schools
 Executive Office of the President
o Established by FDR
o Provides president with general staff to help direct activities of exeutive
branch
o A mini bureaucracy
o Has expanded over time and has become the prime policy makers in fields
of expertise
 White House staff
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o Personal assistants to prez

o Power depends on personal relationship with prez

Presidential Leadership and Importance of Public Opinion

 Leadership and Personality

o Personality depends on prez
o All have different leadership styles
o Psychologists suggest that personality of prez influences success in White
House
 Going Public
o Presidents try to reach out to people through linkage institutions
o Heavily changed by TV and radio and stuff
 President and Public Opinion
o Approval ratings – important
 Jump up and down depending on current events
o Popularity follows a pattern
 Honeymoon period where ratings are high
 Each action is divisive and has a negative cumulative affect on prez.
Approval rating

Toward Reform: The President as Policy Maker

 Modern prsidents play major role in setting legislative agenda, esp when House
and Senate are in disagreement
o Tend to have a hard time persuading Congress to pass their programs
o Important to take advantage of honeymoon period to pass things
o Can bolster support from political party
 Budgetary process and Legislative implementation
o Prez sets national policy and priorities through budget proposals and
insistence on congressional passage
o Congress have power of the purse, and so Congress had responsibility of
budgetary process until 1930 economic disaster
 Gave FDR opportunity to involve himself in congressional
budgetary process
o Nixon changed Executive Office of the President to Office of Management
and Budget to clarify function
 Works exclusively for prez
 Employs budget and policy experts
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Chapter 8:

The Executive Branch and the Federal Bureaucracy

 Roots of Federal Bureaucracy

o Under AoC, there were three executive departments:
 Foreign Affairs
 War
 Treasury
 Inherited by George Washington as Cabinet
 Headed by a secretary
 The Civil War and Growth of Gov’t
o Permanently changed nature of federal bureaucracy
o Lincoln added thousands of new employees to existing departments
o Spawned need for new government agencies in response to series of
harvests and distribution problems
o Pension Office created to pay benefits to Union veterans
 Spoils System to Merit System
o Hayes wanted to replace spoils system with merit system
 A system of employment based on qualifications rather than loyalty
 Congress said nah
 After Garfield’s death, Congress passed Civil Service Reform Act in
1883 (Pendleton Act)
 Regulating Commerce
o First independent regulatory commission – ICC
 Marked shift in focus of bureaucracy from service to regulation
o Theodore Roosevelt
 Strengthened movement toward gov’t regulation of economic
sphere
 Asked Congress to establish and oversee employee-employer
relations and bureaucracy grew
 World Wars and Growth of Gov’t
o Economy seemed to boom during WWI but bad harvests and stuff led to
slump
o Fell into Great Depression
o FDR makes bureaucracy very strong
o US got involved in WW2 while trying to get out of Depression
o Fed. Gov’t continued to grow in order to meet needs of nation at war
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o Civil rights mvmt and LBJ’s Great Society programs grew bureaucracy
 EEOC and HUD

The Modern Bureaucracy

 Bureaucrats are gov’t employees who work in Cabinet-level departments and

independent agencies – alphabet soup
 Most employees are paid according to General Schedule
 Lower levels, exams are used
 Mid to upper levels, resumes are used
 Persons not covered by civil service system make up remaining 10% of federal
workforce
o Appointive policy-making positions
o Independent regulatory commissioners
o Low level, nonpolicy patronage positions
 Very diverse in jobs
 Minorities and women tend to lag behind in bureaucrat positions
 High rate of turnover
 Formal Organization
o 1150 at least! Civilian agencies in existence
o Traditional division into areas of specialization
o Four categories:
 Cabinet departments
 Government corporations
 Independent executive agencies
 Independent regulatory commissions
 Cabinet Departments
o Conduct broad areas of governmental operations
o About 60% of workforce
 Independent executive agencies
o Resemble cabinet departments but narrower responsibilities
o Perform services rather than regulation
 Independent regulatory commissions
o Regulate economic activities or interests
o Most created to be free from partisan political pressure
 Government corporations
o Most recent addition to bureaucracy
o Perform functions that private businesses could provide
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o Amtrak
 Government Workers and Political Involvement
o Ppl began to fear that members of civil service would have too much
power
o Hatch Act – prohibited federal employees from becoming directly involved
with political candidates
 Later liberalized to allow employees to run for public office in
nonpartisan elections, contribute money to political organizations,
campaign for or against candidates

How Bureaucracy Works

 Max Weber says model bureaucracies exhibit

o A chain of command from top to bottom
o Division of labor where work is apportioned among workers to increase
productivity
o Clear lines of authority among workers and superiors
o Goal orientation that determines structure, authority, and rules
o Impersonality – all employees treated fairly based on merit and all clients
are served equally
o Productivity, where all work and actions are evaluated according to
established rules
 Congress is delegating Const. powers every time they make a new department
 Iron triangles!!!
 Making Policy
o Main purpose of all bodies is to make policies daily
o Rule making
 Quasi-legislative process resulting in regulations that have
characteristics of a legislative act
 1946 Administrative Procedures Act established rule-making
procedures to give everyone chance to participate in process
o Administrative Adjucation
 In violation? Bruh
 Administrative adjudication – quasi-judicial process in which
bureaucratic agency settles disputes between two parties in a
manner similar to court

Toward Reform: Making Agencies Accountable

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 Many agree that prez should take charge of bureaucracy to ensure they are
under control
 But, Congress controls them
 As nat. gov’t grows, bureaucracies have grown in power
 Prez control
o Presidents try to appoint best people to carry out their policy
o Prez can reorganize bureaucracy
o Prez can shape policy and provide direction to bureaucracies
 Congressional Control
o Can confirm or reject nomineses to top bureaucratic positions
o Can use investigatory power to conduct program evals
o Has power of purse (spending)
 Judicial Control
o Less apparent
o Can issue injunctions or orders to an agency before a rule is publicized
o Courts have ruled that agencies must give all affected individuals due
process rights guaranteed by US const.
o Litigation exerts strong influence on bureaucrats