POL 443 - Exam 1

Personal Presidency

An approach to studying executive politics that focuses on the distinctive features of the individuals who hold office.

Institutional Presidency

An approach to studying executive politics that focuses on the design of the presidency and its attendant powers, resources, and incentives.

Institution

It is a reasonably stable and binding practices, rules, and relationships that govern the actions and choices of specific individuals.

Institutionalist

Someone who takes as a starting point the facts that presidents are embedded within institutions and that presidential power is mediated by those institutions.

Articles of Confederation

The original agreement among the thirteen colonies to form a national government, which functioned from 1781 to 1789.

Quorum

It is the number of members of an assembly needed for a binding vote to occur.

Checks and Balances

A constitutional system of governance in which specific powers are granted to each branch of government in order to guard against the encroachments of others.

Veto Power

The president’s power to stop legislation, limited by the ability of both chambers of Congress to override the veto.

Enumerated Powers

Powers explicitly granted to the executive in the Constitution.

Pardon Powers

The president’s enumerated power to grant pardons and commutations for federal offenses.

Unitary Executive

A single individual responsible for putting laws into effect.

Plural Executive

A panel of elected officials responsible for putting laws into effect.

Electoral College

A deliberative body constrained by a complex set of constitutionally prescribed rules that stipulate how popular votes translate into the selection of U.S. presidents and vice presidents.

3/5 Clause

A provision adopted at the Constitutional Convention that counted all enslaved individuals as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional representation.

Franchise

The right to vote.

Originalism

A school of legal thought that views the Constitution as a document whose meaning was fixed once and ever more at the time of the nation’s founding.

Living Constitution

A school of legal thought that views the Constitution as a document whose meaning evolves flexibly over time.

Vesting Clause

The Article II provision that executive power is entrusted exclusively to the presidency

Take-Care Clause

The Article II provision that the president shall “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”.

Unitary Executive Theory

Also called the “unitary theory of the executive,” the legal argument that presidents legitimately retain unrivaled control over the federal bureaucracy.

Progressive Era

A period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marked by an expansion of presidential powers, a growth of civil service protections, and more interventionist government policy.

Stewardship Theory

A theory of presidential power, pioneered by Theordore Roosevelt, in which constitutional ambiguity surrounding executive powers invites the president to act when the Constitution is silent.

Literalist Theory

This theory articulated best by President Taft, the view that presidents may only exercise those powers explicitly granted by the Constitution or congressional delegations of authority.

Modern Presidency

A contested notion that posits FDR (or possibly Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson) as the progenitor of a more powerful and institutionalized American presidency.

New Deal

The collection of domestic policy reforms advanced by FDR that were intended to lift the nation out of an economic depression and that established the template for the modern welfare state.

Brownlow Committee

A commission/committee appointed by FDR in 1936, tasked with offering suggestions for the institutional reorganization and empowerment of the American presidency

Scientific Management

A body of knowledge that, during the Progressive Movement, guided reforms meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governing institutions.

Executive Office of the President

Originally recommended in the Congressional report by the Brownlow Committee that the president needs help. This institution was created.

Executive Reorganization Act

After congressional distrust of the president seemed to have abated, and the two chambers passed this act. A watered-down version of Brownlow’s original committee.

Total War

A military conflagration that affects and mobilizes nearly every sector of society, then World War II can be seen as an acceleration and expansion in kind—with dramatic consequences for the institutional design of government.

White House Office

This Office organizes the president’s schedule, manages press relations, and develops political strategy.

Council of Economic Advisors

This Council advises the president on economic matters.

Office of Management and Budget

This Office oversees regulatory matters and helps the president write an annual budget proposal.

National Security Council

This Council reports directly to the president on perceived foreign threats and offers policy recommendations on how best to meet them.

Cabinet

Its departments are the oldest, largest, and most directly controlled components of the executive branch. They form the backbone of federal administration and reflect how national responsibilities have expanded over time. It carries out broad areas of federal policy, are led by presidentially appointed and removable secretaries, and have grown from three original departments to fifteen today, mirroring the increasing complexity of American governance.

Independent Agencies

They expand federal capacity by performing specialized administrative and regulatory functions, often with statutory protections that limit presidential influence and ensure continuity across administrations.

Government Corporations

They resemble private companies in structure but are chartered by Congress, funded independently of presidential priorities, and overseen primarily by Congress, leaving presidents with minimal influence over their operations.

Inherent Powers

Presidential powers that are neither explicitly delineated within nor implied by the Constitution.

What does the theory argue about the President’s constitutional authority over the executive branch?

The theory argues that Article II’s Vesting Clause (“the executive Power shall be vested in a President”) and the Take Care Clause (“take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”) make the president the head of the executive branch, giving the president supervisory, directive, and removal authority over executive officials.

Identify the principal constitutional provisions that supporters of the unitary executive theory rely upon. Explain why the Take Care Clause and Article 2’s Vesting Clause are important to the theory.

Supporters rely on Article 2’s Vesting Clause (“the executive shall be vested in a President”) and the Take Care Clause (“taking care that the laws be faithfully executed.”) Vesting Clause is important to the theory because it’s interpreted as granting full executive authority to the president. Take Care Clause is important because it’s read as requiring strong supervisory and removal powers to ensure faithful execution of federal law.

Why would strong unitary-executive approach favor presidential control over executive-branch officials and agencies?

A strong unitary executive approach favors presidential control because it holds that all executive power is constitutionally vested in one president, meaning agencies and officials must be subjected to presidential direction and removal to maintain accountability, prevent bureaucratic drift, and ensure coherent execution of federal laws.

What constitutional powers does Congress possess that might limit or constrain presidential control of the executive branch?

Congress constrains presidential control through the power of the purse, statutory design of agencies, Senate confirmation of appointments, statutory removal protections, oversight investigations, reporting requirements, and impeachment.

Is the ambiguity of Article 2, a weakness, a strength, or both? Explain.

It’s both.

Its broad, open-ended language allows the presidency to adapt to changing national needs, but it also produces recurring disputes over the limits of executive power. Flexibility enables institutional evolution while simultaneously generating conflict over how far presidential authority extends.

Why might the Spanish-American War not expanded presidential power in the same way as the first and second world wars? Explain.

It never created the scale of mobilization, political centralization, or the institutional transformation that Howell argues are necessary for major increases in executive authority. The Spanish-American War was brief, limited, and peripheral leaving existing institutional arrangements largely intact.

In what ways did Taft’s literalist theory lend itself to a weak presidency? Explain. You may compare to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

Taft’s literalist theory produced a weak presidency because it confined executive action to explicitly enumerated powers and discouraged unilateral initiative. Taft’s approach made the president dependent on Congress, reluctant to mobilize public opinion, and unwilling to push reform.

Why might so many scholars attribute the “modern presidency” to FDR? Why not Theodore Roosevelt? Or for that matter Lincoln? Explain.

Scholars attribute “modern presidency” to FDR because he did more than act boldly, he rebuilt the presidency as an institution. Lincoln expanded power temporarily. FDR expanded power structurally, permanently, and comprehensively.

Is stewardship theory still useful concept for examining the presidency? To what extent do today’s presidents preach or simply conform to its central tenets.

Stewardship theory is still useful because the presidency continues to operate in the energetic, nationally oriented way. Modern presidency behave similarly when they direct military operations, negotiate international agreements, or respond immediately to global crises, such as the raid on Osama Bin Laden or the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though, today’s presidents rarely invoke Roosevelt’s theory by name, consistently conform to its central tenets by acting broadly in the national interest unless the law clearly forbids it.