chapter 12 POLS 2305

bully pulpit

Theodore Roosevelt’s notion of the presidency as a platform from which the president could push an agenda

cabinet

group of advisors to the president, consisting of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch who head the fifteen executive departments

executive agreement

an international agreement between the president and another country made by the executive branch and without formal consent by the Senate

Executive Office of the President

he administrative organization that reports directly to the president and made up of important offices, units, and staff of the current president and headed by the White House chief of staff

executive order

a rule or order issued by the president without the cooperation of Congress and having force of law Executive orders are subject to court rulings or changes in policy enacted by Congress.

executive privilege

he president’s right to withhold information from Congress, the judiciary, or the public

going public

a term for when the president delivers a major television address in the hope that public pressure will result in legislators supporting the president on a major piece of legislation

impeachment

the act of charging a government official with serious wrongdoing, which in some cases may lead to the removal of that official from office

king caucus

an informal meeting held in the nineteenth century, sometimes called a congressional caucus, made up of legislators in the Congress who met to decide on presidential nominees for their respective parties

line-item veto

a power created through law in 1996 and overturned by the Supreme Court in 1998 that allowed the president to veto specific aspects of bills passed by Congress while signing into law what remained

Office of Management and Budget

an office within the Executive Office of the President charged with producing the president’s budget, overseeing its implementation, and overseeing the executive bureaucracy

rally around the flag effect

signing statement a spike in presidential popularity during international crises

signing statement

a statement a president issues with the intent to influence the way a specific bill the president signs should be enforced

Electoral College

consists of a body of 538 people called electors, each representing one of the fifty states or the District of Columbia, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president n forty eight states and the District of Columbia, the candidate who wins the popular vote in November receives all the state’s electoral votes. In two states, Nebraska and Maine, the electoral votes are divided: The candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets two electoral votes, but the winner of each congressional district also receives an electoral vote

Twelfth Amendment,

which couples a particular presidential candidate with that candidate’s running mate in a unified ticket provided for the separate election of president and vice president as well as setting out ways to choose a winner if no one received a majority of the electoral votes

president requires

ongress might remove the president. Article II of the Constitution lays out the agreed-upon requirements—the chief executive must be at least thirty-five years old and a “natural born” citizen of the United States (or a citizen at the time of the Constitution’s adoption) who has been an inhabitant of the United States for at least fourteen years.

Twenty-Second Amendment

was proposed and ratified, limiting the presidency to two four-year terms.

—impeachment.

mpeachment is the act of charging a government official with serious wrongdoing; the Constitution calls this wrongdoing high crimes and misdemeanors. The method the framers designed required two steps and both chambers of the Congress. First, the House of Representatives could impeach the president by a simple majority vote. In the second step, the Senate could remove the president from office by a two-thirds majority, with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding over the trial. Upon conviction and removal of the president, if that occurred, the vice president would become president.

president powers

commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the United States, negotiate treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate, and receive representatives of foreign nations (Figure 12.4). Charged to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” the president was given broad power to pardonthose convicted of federal offenses, except for officials removed through the impeachment process.9 The chief executive would present to Congress information about the state of the union; call Congress into session when needed; veto legislation if necessary, although a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of Congress could override that veto; and make recommendations for legislation and policy as well as call on the heads of various departments to make reports and offer opinions nominating federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, as well as other federal officials, and making appointments to fill military and diplomatic posts. The number of judicial appointments and nominations of other federal officials is great.

executive agreementsto f

ormalize international relations, so long as important matters still came through the Senate in the form of treaties.

primaries,

elections in which candidates vied for the support of state delegations to the party’s nominating convention

supporters of the electoral college

Supporters of the current system defend it as a manifestation of federalism, arguing that it also guards against the chaos inherent in a multiparty environment by encouraging the current two-party system. They point out that under a system of direct election, candidates would focus their efforts on more populous regions and ignore other

critics of electoral college

Critics, on the other hand, charge that the current system negates the one-person, one-vote basis of U.S. elections, subverts majority rule, works against political participation in states deemed safe for one party, and might lead to chaos should an elector desert a candidate, thus thwarting the popular will. Despite all this, the system remains in place. It appears that many people are more comfortable with the problems of a flawed system than with the uncertainty of change.23

president selection process

candidates announce their intention to run , primary and caucus debates take place

states and parties hold primaries and causes

the parties hold nominating conventions to choose their candidates

candaties participate in presidential debates

election day is held

electer’s cast their vote in the electoral college

congress counts the electoral votes

inauguration day takes placw

fifteen members of the cabinet, in

cluding the Secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, Education, and others (Figure 12.9). The most important members—the heads of the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, and the Treasury (echoing Washington’s original cabinet)—receive the most attention from the president, the Congress, and the media. These four departments have been referred to as the inner cabinet, while the others are called the outer cabine

what are subject to senate aprroval

presidntial nomination for cabinent and subject to Senate approval are a number of non-cabinet subordinate administrators in the various departments of the executive branch, as well as the administrative heads of several agencies and commissions. These include the heads of the Internal Revenue Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Reserve, the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

“malign neglect.

refusing to hold hearings at all, a strategy of defeat that scholars have referred to as

Executive Office of the President,

created by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), contains a number of advisory bodies, including the Council of Economic Advisers, the National Security Council, the OMB, and the Office of the Vice President. Presidents also choose political advisers, speechwriters, and a press secretary to manage the politics and the message of the administration.

not subject to senate aproval

e not subject to Senate approval, including the president’s personal staff (whose most important member is the White House chief of staff) and various advisers (most notably the national security adviser).

e least powerful, member of a president’s cabinet i

s thevice president. Throughout most of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, the vast majority of vice presidents took very little action in the office unless fate intervene

an inaugural address—ca

n do much to set the tone for what is intended to follow. While such an address may be an exercise in rhetorical inspiration, it also allows the president to set forth priorities within the overarching vision of what they intend to do.

presidents powers categories

direct actions the chief executive can take by employing the formal institutional powers of the office and informal powers of persuasion and negotiation essential to working with the legislative branch. When a president governs alone through direct action, it may break a policy deadlock or establish new grounds for action, but it may also spark opposition that might have been handled differently through negotiation and discussion. Moreover, such decisions are subject to court challenge, legislative reversal, or revocation by a successor. W

presidnet can dp waht with members of their cabinent

they can demand the resignation or removal of cabinet officers, high-ranking appointees (such as ambassadors), and members of the presidential staff.

Tenure of Office Act(1867),

hich required Senate concurrence to remove presidential nominees who took office upon Senate confirmation

what can the president do if the senate fails to aprrove their nominations

the president is empowered to issue recess appointments (made while the Senate is in recess) that continue in force until the end of the next session of the Senate (unless the Senate confirms the nominee).

executive memorandum,

which tends to attract less attention. than an executive order ,

signing statements

are statements issued by a president when agreeing to legislation that indicate how the chief executive will interpret and enforce the legislation in question. Signing statements are less powerful than vetoes, though congressional opponents have complained that they derail legislative intent. Signing statements have been used by presidents since at least James Monroe, but they became far more common in this century.

Executive agreements

are formal agreements negotiated between two countries but not ratified by a legislature as a treaty must be some executive agreements do require some legislative approval, such as those that commit the United States to make payments and thus are restrained by the congressional power of the purse. But for the most part, executive agreements signed by the president require no congressional action and are considered enforceable as long as the provisions of the executive agreement do not conflict with current domestic law.

treaties

treaties under U.S. law, which require two-thirds of the Senate for ratification. Treaties, presidents have found, are particularly difficult to get ratified. And with the fast pace and complex demands of modern foreign policy, concluding treaties with countries can be a tiresome and burdensome chore