Unit 5: The Executive Branch and the Bureaucracy

Executive Branch

Constitutional Requirements

• Must be a natural born citizen

• At least 35 years old

  • Oldest is Trump

  • Youngest elected was JKF but youngest serving was Teddy Roosevelt

  • No one under 40 yet likely bc ppl don’t want to vote for someone w/ little experience

• Lived in the US for at least 14 years total (not necessarily consecutive)

• Term Limits

  • 22nd Amendment — 2 terms plus 2 years

    • Plus 2 if the VP takes over halfway thru a president’s term

  • 25th Amendment — disability of president + succession process

    • A new non-elected VP needs approval from both houses

Presidential Succession

• Prez —> VP —> Speaker of House —> Prez Pro Temp —> Sec. of State —> Other Cabinet members

• So far it hasn’t gone past the Speaker of the House (VP RESIGNED —> Prez Richard Nixon RESIGNED —> SOH Gerald Ford TOOK OFFICE)

President’s Roles

• Chief of State

• Chief Exec

• Chief Admin.

• Chief Diplomat

• Commander in Chief OR THE…

• Chief Legislator**

• Party Chief**

**Not explicitly in Constitution

War Powers Resolution 1973

• Required president to consult w/ congress prior to using military force

• Mandates the withdrawal of troops after 60 days unless congress declared war or granted an extension

• Congress could at any time pass a concurrent resolution (can’t be vetoed) ending American participation in hostilities

• Presidents have largely ignored the law and sent troops into hostilities

State of the Union

• Article 2 Section 3 Clause 1 of the constitution

• Address Congress

• How was the country doing and what was going on

The Vice President (and Gun Safety)

• VP is a heartbeat away

  • Political professional, faithful follower which might deter his own presidential ambitions, i.e. Gore)

• Formal Duties

  • Preside over senate

  • Vote incase of tie

• Importance of the Office

  • Balance the ticket

  • Powers have grown over time

  • Must be a natural born citizen

  • Gerald Ford — only non elected president (as president or vp bc he was speaker of house)

EOP and the Cabinet (picks)

• EOP = Executive Office of the President

  • Made up of several agencies staffed by the presidents most trusted advisors and assistants

  • White House Office — nerve center of the executive office

    • “West Wing”

    • Chief of staff directs the operations of the whole presidential staff AKA “Gatekeeper of the President”

  • National Security Council — people that deal with national security/military/military adjacent…FBI, CIA, Homeland, etc.

  • Office of Policy Development — domestic affairs

  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — big role in making the budget/proposal

  • Council of Economic Advisors — keep watch over economy and possible problems

• The Cabinet (part of bureaucracy)

  • What is it?

  • Roles

    • Individually — run their respective departments

    • Together — advise the president on policy matters concerning their department

    • 15 secretaries and Attorney General

      • Responsibilities — execute presidential and congressional policy directives

      • Requirements — support the president, usually partisan selections, that can become a rough time when appeasing the senate

        • Senate confirms all cabinet appointees

  • The Brain Trust and Kitchen Cabinet

  • Brain Trust = FDR’s advisors (social and economic) that came up with the New Deal (how to get us out of Great Depression)

  • Kitchen Cabinet = Andrew Jackson’s cabinet that were his group of friends that basically just hung out and did government stuff

The Bureaucracy

What is the Bureaucracy?

• A hierarchical authority structure that use task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves w/ impersonality

• Bureaucracy: a large, complex organization composed of appointed officials

• Govern modern states

• Administrative Discretion: authority given by congress to the federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing laws

• Merit Principle: intended to produce an administration of people w/ talent and skill

  • Entrance and promotion are warded on the basis of demonstrated abilities versus “who you know”

• Civil Service: system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service

• Patronage System/Principle: reward for supporting (opposite of merit principle and civil service)

• Hatch Act — prohibits civil service employees from actively participating in partisan politics while on duty

• No one person can make all the decisions

• American Bureaucracy:

  • Political authority over the bureaucracy is shaped—in Britain, bureaucrats don’t deal w/ Parliament

  • Most of the agencies of the federal government share their functions w/ related agencies in state/local government…FEDERALISM

• Red Tape: excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making

  • Usually applied to governments, corporations, and other large organizations

How Bureaucracies are Organized

• what was the first one?????

• Independent Regulatory Agencies

  • Responsible for some sector of the economy making rules and judging diputes to protect the public interest

    • Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

    • Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

    • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

    • Federal Election Commission (FEC)

• Government Corporations

  • Business-like

  • Provide services like private companies and typically charge for them

    • Postal Service

    • Amtrak

  • Trending more towards private sector than public

    • Issues about why we are paying taxes that go towards these if we have to pay anyways

• Independent Executive Agencies

  • Don’t fit in anywhere else

  • Administrators typically appointed by the president and serve at their pleasure

    • NASA

Bureaucracy and Democracy

• Congress tries to control the bureaucracy

  • Influence appointments of agency heads

    • Senate confirms presidential nominees

  • Alter agency’s budget

  • Oversight hearings

  • Rewrite legislation/make it more detailed

Miscellaneous

• Solicitor General

  • Represent the USA before the Supreme Court

  • Determines the legal position that the USA will take in the supreme court

  • In addition to supervising and conducting cases in which the government is a party, the Solicitor General’s office also files amicus curiae briefs in cases in which the federal government has a significant interest in the legal issue

    • Amicus curiae = friend of the court

  • Also files appeals in some cases