Federal Government Module 4

What are the qualification for Presidency?

Must be natural born citizen, at least 35 or older; have to be on US soil for 14 years or longer

Impeachment

The House Investigates then passes articles of impeachment; then it goes to the senate

What is Executive privilege

It allows a president to refuse to disclose information regarding confidential conversations to national security to the other branches of government

Succession Process

Who gets power after the president dies

What is the 25th amendment

It allows the president to appoint their own new as long as they can get a simple majority approval from congress

• It allows the vice president and the presidents cabinet to deem a president unable to fulfill his duties

Expressed and Enumerated Powers

The President is Allowed to

• Make Appointments (App. Judges cabinet members etc)

• Convene Congress

• Chief negotiator for Foreign policy

• Vetoes

• Commander in Chief

• Pardons

What did Washington do?

• established the primacy of the national government over state government with militia

• Led troops into battle

• began the practice of regular cabinet meetings

• assorted the chief executives role in the conduct of foreign affairs

• Claimed diplomatic powers for the presidency

What did Andrew Jackson do

• Launched Jacksonian democracy (the office of the president should be close to the people)

• Used the Spoil system to give his friends jobs in the government

• made more use of the veto power

• assorted the presidency of the national government by facing down South Carolina during that nullification crisis

What did Lincoln Do?

• Took on more power than any other president

• Suspended the writ of Habeas corpus

• expanded the size of the US army

• Ordered a blockade of southern ports

• Closed the US mail to reasonable correspondents

• exercised inherit powers in office

What did FDR do?

• expanded the size of the federal government and its programs witht he New deal

• First president to just sit down and talk to the people normally

• Huge federal role in foreign policy

What is the Cabinet

The heads of all the major federal government departments

• every meeting has to be approved by the senate

What are the White House Staff

• Provide the president with broad and more political assistance and advice (his lawyers, communication staff etc)

What is the Executive office of the President

permanent agencies that perform defined management tasks for the president

• The most import is the OMB (helps with the budget)

The Vice president

succeeds the president after death and preside over the senate and cast a vote when there’s a tie. He’s an electoral resource

The First Spouse

Helped with policies

Implementation

The reason that laws are put into rules that constrain our choices (Congress is over that)

Tools of presidential power

• Regulatory review

• Executive orders

• Signing statements

• Non-enforcement of laws

Federal Bureaucracy

the second half of the executive branch (dept. of education, agriculture etc)

The Spoil System

A system of employment based on loyalty; started by Jackson

The Merit System

A system of employment based on qualifications, test scores, and ability, rather than loyalty; supported by Rutherford Hayes

*Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Group of people allowed to make laws about what businesses can and can’t do

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Protects small businesses from unfair trade practice done by big businesses; created by Woodrow Wilson

The 16th amendment

Gave the government the power to collect income tax that they didn’t have to redistribute among the states

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Has the power to bring forth lawsuits against employers that were using discriminatory hiring and firing practices

The Modern bureaucracy

A simple form of organization

• Defines what police means in practice

• Employ specialists to provide services to the people

• More than 15,000 job skills

• Average length of service: 15-20 years

• Lawyers, doctors, forest rangers, zoologists, plumbers

What are the four categories the bureaucracy is organized?

• Cabinet departments (15; depts of Agriculture, education, housing etc.)

• Independent executive agencies (Provide services; NASA)

• independent regulatory commissions (created by congress; make rules about economic activities, FCC)

• Government corporations (government businesses that provide for private businesses; US postal services)

What do bureaucrats do?

• Implement Laws

• Make Rules

• Enforce Laws

• Innovate

What are the goals of bureaucracy

• Promoting the public welfare

• Serving clientiles

• Providing National security

• Maintaining a strong economy

What are Iron Triangles

Sub Governmental Policy

• Congress (Creates Policy and Laws)

• bureaucracy (enablers and enforce Laws)

• Special Interest Groups (Planned Parenthood), NRA,

What role does the executive play in making the bureaucracy accountable"?

• Reorganize the bureaucracy

• Make changes in an agency’s annual budget

• Can issue executive orders that affect government agencies

What role does congress play in making the bureaucracy accountable?

• Change the budget of federal agencies

• create or abolish federal agencies

• Hold oversight hearing over federal agencies

What role does the Judiciary play in making the bureaucracy accountable"?

• Can issue an injunction (order to an executive agency to stop doing or trying something

• Ruled that all agencies have to give everybody due process rights