US Executive - An Introduction and the Powers of the President



Presidential:
Prime-Ministerial:
Role of chief executive and head of state are performed by the same person
Fusion between the legislature and the executive
Legislature and executive elected separately
Executive branch drawn from the legislature
Singular Executive
Collective executive
Separation of people between legislature and executive
PM can dissolve legislature
POTUS cannot dismiss the legislature
Legislature can dismiss the executive branch via a vote of no confidence
Fixed term elections
Elected by the party not election
More checks
Leader of the majority party in the legislature.
Elected by the people
Can choose election dates
Not a member of the executive
Held responsible for election defeat
Candidate led elections
Leader of the majority in one legislation
Two term limits
Party centred elections
Few ‘sticks and carrots’
Not subject to term limits
Congress has checks
Effective ‘sticks and carrots’
President’s party may be the minority one in one or both houses.
Party discipline


The 3 Criteria For The Founding Fathers:
  1. FF created a POTUS who would be both head of state and head of the government. “I am the King and the President” – Roosevelt
  2. Wanted a singular executive. The cabinet cannot and will not be a decision-making body. “The buck stops here” Truman
  3. Indirectly elected POTUS. Chosen by elections, now seen as a direct election.
  4. Created a limited POTUS. They have lots of checks and balances as they were scared of tyranny.
Formal Powers Of The POTUS:
  • Propose Legislation: Power to propose legislation to Congress through the state of the union. They can announce legislation at any time. Obama used the 2013 SOTU to announce some health care reforms
  • Submit The Annual Budget: OMB draws up the budget. The POTUS then submits the budget followed by a lengthy bargaining process between POTUS and Congress.
  • Sign Legislation: After they have been through Congress, the POTUS will then sign the ball. Obama invited people to watch him do this.
  • Veto Legislation: As well as signing bills into law, the POTUS also has the option to vetoing them. There are two types of veto: Regular and pocket. Regular is used very often. Presidents from George Washington to George W Bush has used the veto over 1500 times. Congress can veto the veto as well, W Bush had the lowest success rate of any POTUS (63%). The pocket veto can only be used at the end of the Congressional session and they cannot be overridden. Obama used 12 pocket vetoes. Obama had a veto blocked in September 2016 about Terrorism whilst Congress argued that it would ‘damage the relationship between America and middle-eastern countries’.  
  • Act As Chief Executive: The POTUS is in charge of executive branch of the federal government. Whilst most of the work is delegated to the federal government delegates. Modern POTUS have their own bureaucracy – EXOP to help them coordinate the work of the federal government.  
  • Nominate Executive Branch Officials: Has the power to nominate hundreds of officials to the executive. The most nominations tend to come during the first few weeks of the POTUS presidency as they have lots of posts to fill.  
  • Nominate All Federal Judges: The POTUS must fill vacancies not only on the federal Supreme Court but on the federal trial and appeal courts. All of these appointments are for life and therefore have a special position in the country. All appointments must be confirmed by a simple majority in Congress.  
  •  Act As Commander-In-Chief: An important role for the POTUS when military action must be taken. Truman had to use this a lot during Berlin and Korea. Since the downfall of the Soviet Union this power has not been used much. It was last largely used in 1991 during Bush’s presidency when he fought the Gulf War. After 9/11, the role was back and Bush had to fight in Iraq and Obama had to fight in Libya. Congress has lots of checks for this role and the POTUS asks Congress to authorize his use of troops. The POTUS has a nuclear football which has the nuclear codes should he need them – this is a reminder of his commander-in-chief role.  
  • Negotiate Treaties: Modern POTUS use this power to negotiate treaties such as the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. This power is checked by Congress and needs a 2/3rd majority. Clinton in 1999, failed to gain even a simple majority for the test ban treaty.  
  • Pardon: The POTUS uses this power frequently. Ford pardoned Nixon after Watergate. Clinton caused lot of trouble when he pardoned Mark Rich a tax avoider. His wife had also donated to Clinton’s campaign. Obama didn’t use the pardon much in this first 7 years in Office but in his final few months he pardoned 142 more vs 70 in his first 7 years.  
  • Head Of State: Seen mostly when a national tragedy when the POTUS becomes comforter-in-chief. Bush played this role after the 9/11 attacks. He made a statement at Primetime after the attacks which was seen by millions of Americans and he addressed the nation again, 3 days after the attacks.  
The 5 Powers Of The Vice President: 
  1. Presiding officer of the Senate but it is rarely performs. The Senate usually deputes junior members of its chamber to chair debates.  
  2. Granted the power to break a tie in the Senate. Only used if the VP is present in the Senate. Dick Cheney had to cast a tie-breaking vote in 2001 after Bush’s tax cuts. Biden never had to cast a tie-breaking vote but Mike Pence had to cast one, one month after taking office.  
  3. Counting and announcing the result of the Electoral College. In 2001, outgoing Al Gore had to announce his own defeat. And in Jan 2013, Biden announced his own re-election.  
  4. The most important one: The VP will become POTUS upon his death, resignation or removal of the POTUS from office. This has happened on nine occasions. 4 times following the death of JFK. John Adams said “In this I am nothing, but I may be everything”.  
  5. A new 5th power. To become acting POTUS if the POTUS is declared “disable”. It has been used three times most recently on the 21st June 2007 when W Bush required sedation in order to undergo a colonoscopy. Dick Cheney was acting POTUS for just over two ours. Now VPs play a huge role in the day to day running of the country but it may not seem like it.  
What Does The Cabinet Do: 
  • The advisory group selected by the POTUS to aid him in making decisions and coordinating the work of the federal government.  
  • Used to be just three roles – state, war and the treasury but now there are 15. In 2012 when Obama announced a new position for the role of small businesses, it shows the importance the POTUS was placing on small businesses.  
  • Not mentioned in the Constitution because they created a singular executive.  
  • The POTUS needs an opinion and he needs them in writing.  
Why Does The POTUS Have A Cabinet: 
  • In 1789, Washington thought it would be useful to have a meeting with the head of the secretaries war, treasury and the State. The press began to call them “cabinet meetings”. Every POTUS since has used them.  
  • It is important not to confuse the cabinet as individuals and the cabinet as a group. Failure to understand this can lead to confusion.  
  • “Was Obama’s cabinet important” the answer to this was no. But as individuals members, it was important. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was important but on the other hand, cabinet meetings were hardly held and so as a group, the cabinet was not important.  
The 4 Pools Of Recruitment To The Cabinet: 
  1. Congress: The main problem with this is that existing members of Congress have to give up seats in order to join the cabinet. It is more likely that the POTUS will ask retiring or former members of Congress to join the cabinet. Trump however made three congressmen give up their seats in order to join the cabinet in 2017.  
  2. Serving Or Former State Governors: These people are more experienced and more likely to be asked. Two former state governors were asked to join the Trump cabinet 
  3. Big City Mayors: City mayors can bring vast experience and as such Obama asked two formers mayors to join his cabinet 
  4. Academia: Ivy League universities can drive the POTUS to ask someone to join his cabinet. They usually get high science jobs such as secretary of state for energy  
The Functions Of The Cabinet: 
  • Team Spirit: Important at the beginning of the term. The POTUS does not have a shadow cabinet and some members will be complete strangers. Once the POTUS has weld them into his position this function is not helpful anymore. This can partly explain why the frequency of cabinet meetings decline as the term goes on.  
  • Collegiality: Ever since Nixon, POTUS have tried to avoid this. The cabinet is not very “open” in America. Cartoons were drawn of the cabinet meetings with security guards. Since this, many POTUS have pictures taken and published in local papers to show that he is running an open administration. 
  • Exchanging Information: Meetings provide chances for information to give and receive information. The POTUS will generally go around the table asking for any developments, many of them go clockwise. This is an effective method by which the POTUS keeps in touch with what is going on in the vast federal bureaucracy.  
  • Policy Debate: Some POTUS like to use the cabinet to debate certain issues. Frank Carlucci – Reagan’s defence secretary noted how it was “listing pros and cons [of building the Russian oil pipeline] it was quite the shouting match”
  • Presenting ‘Big Picture Items’: The POTUS will tend to announce things which will affect all cabinet members at the meetings such as budget, upcoming elections or a foreign trip. Obama used such a meeting to discuss the shut-down of the federal government.
  • Monitoring Congress: Sessions can also be used to check up on legislation going through Congress which the POTUS has a particular interest in. Willard Writz – Labour secretary to Johnson said “If Congress was in session you knew there was a cabinet meeting coming up in a day or two. He [Johnson] would pressurise you into making sure things moved quicker”
  • Prompting Action: If the POTUS thinks the member is not doing a good job, he can “hurry” up the process. In 2014, Obama asked Chuck Hagel – Secretary Of Defence to “hurry up chuck” and asked White House staff to help him release some Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
  • Personal Contact: Whilst the POTUS has frequent meetings with “high-tier” cabinet members such as Secretary Of State, he may forget about “second-tier” members. So cabinet meetings allow him to ask them how things are going for that department especially because some of the departments offices are far away from the White House – in downtown Washington. HUD Secretary Sam Pierce recalled a time when he went to visit President Reagan and Reagan mistook him for a visitor and said “Hello Mr Mayor, how are you? How are things in your city?”


Is The President’s Cabinet Important:
Yes:
No:
It contains some of the most important people in the executive branch (secretary of state) Article II of the Constitution vests “all executive power” to the POTUS
All the heads of the 15 executive departments are automatically members There is no doctrine of collective responsibility
The POTUS always chairs the meetings Members are not the POTUS equals nor his political rivals
Cabinet meetings can fulfil a number of important functions both for the POTUS and for cabinet officers POTUS often views members of his cabinet with some suspicion because of their divided loyalties
Some POTUS like Reagan held frequent cabinet meetings EXOP is the main source of advice-giving for the POTUS.

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