Unit 4 Executive Branch 2011 short version

1. Unit 4 Executive Branch 2011 short version

2. Table of Contents • Role and Duties of the President • Election Process • The Presidents and Presidential Power

3. The Presidency: His Role • Only one individual is President of the United States at any given time. • He serves as, 1. Chief of state 2. Chief executive 3. Chief administrator 4. Chief diplomat 5. Commander in chief 6. Chief legislator 7. Party chief 8. Chief citizen

4. The President’s role • Chief of state – ceremonial head of the U.S. Government • Chief Executive – Vested w/ the executive power of the U.S. • Chief Administrator of the federal Government – Administers the federal bureaucracy

5. 4. Chief diplomat – The main architect of American Foreign Policy 5. Commander In Chief –Command the Nations armed forces 6. Chief Legislator – Sets the shape of Public Policy 7. Chief of party – The leader of the Political party in power.

6. 8. Chief Citizen – The representative of all the people • Each role is played simultaneously and is inseparable from the other

7. Formal Qualifications for the Presidency • The president must be a natural born citizen of the U.S and • lived in the country at least 14 years • Must be at least 35

8. The President’s term • four year term. • 22nd Amend, limits president to only two full terms

9. Pay and Benefits Congress determines the President’s salary. It was first set at 25K per year (1789). • It is now $400,000 per year. • The President is also given a $50,000 per year expense allowance, which may be spent in any way the President chooses. • He is given a home: the White House, offices, and vacation home in Maryland. • A fleet of automobiles • A jet (Air Force One) • Helicopters (Marine One) • Finest medical and dental care. • Retirement • Generous travel and entertainment funds

10. The Electoral College • All of the Presidential electors together are called the Electoral College. • Thus, the Electoral College is the group of people chosen from each State and the District of Columbia to formally select the President and Vice President.

11. Electoral College • With President Washington so popular, the electoral college worked just as it was supposed to. • However, as political parties grew stronger, flaws in the system began to appear. • In the 1800 election all of the 73 electors were Democratic-Republicans. • Each elector cast one vote for Thomas Jefferson and one for Aaron Burr. • The idea of electors as free agents was gone; they were following what their party told them to do. • The result, naturally, was a tie. • 36 ballots before the tie was broken. • This election demonstrated that the system needed to be changed!

12. 12 the Amendment • It was clear that the election of 1800 also required some official changes. • The most important point in the amendment was that electors now had to name who they wanted as President and Vice President. • After we discuss how candidates are nominated, we shall return to how the electoral college functions in the present.

13. Presidential Nominations • Nominating an individual to run for President for a specific party is not something that is mentioned at all in the Constitution. • Indeed, there are almost no laws governing the process at all. • It is something that is run and controlled almost entirely by each political party.

14. Call For a Convention Each of the major parties schedules a convention. Many cities spend a lot of money trying to lure a convention to their city. Convention goers and parties spend a lot of money. Once the place and time are set, the party issues a call for the convention. • Each party then gives each state a certain number of delegates who may attend and vote at the convention. The ratio is identical to the number of electoral votes a state gets. Thus, California receives the most number of delegates for both the Republican and Democratic conventions.

15. Selection of Delegates Okay, who gets to go to the convention and vote? About three fourths of States hold primaries to select convention delegates. A primary is an election in which a party's voters 1) choose some or all of a State’s party organization delegates to their party’s national convention and/or 2) express a preference among various contenders for their parties presidential nomination.

16. Winner-Take-All • The Democrats no longer allow this type of primary, but there are a few Republican primaries that are held this way. • In a winner-take-all primary whomever receives the most votes gets all of the States delegates. • For example if a state had 100 delegates, and Candidate X received 51% of the votes and Candidate Y received 49%. Candidate X would receive 100 delegates to vote for her him at the convention. • Is this fair?

17. The National Convention Once all the primaries and caucuses have been held and all of the delegates chosen, the two major parties hold their national conventions. • There are three major goals of a national convention: • Naming the parties presidential and vice presidential candidates • Bringing together different factions and personalities together in a common place to cement party unity • Adopting the party’s platform (formal statement of its basic principles).

18. Nomination • On day three of four of the convention, delegates nominate the candidate for Vice President. Today, this is not very suspenseful, because the likely presidential nominee announces his choice in advance. The delegates just rubber-stamp his selection. • Delegations then cast their votes for a presidential nominee. • The State delegations, one at a time then announce how their delegates are casting their votes. • Once an individual gets more than half the delegates’ votes, he is nominated. • It is almost always known in advance who has enough delegates, so there is also no suspense. • It hasn’t been since 1946 that a convention has not nominated a candidate on the first ballot.

19. What Type of People Get Nominated? • If an incumbent President wants to be nominated after his first term, it is virtually guaranteed that he will. • If not, the most electable person will get nominated. • This doesn’t mean the smartest, best qualified, most experienced person; it means the person most likely to win in the general election. • Of course, that person might be the smartest, best qualified, and/or most experienced.

20. Modern Presidential Elections As the people vote in the presidential election, they do not cast a vote directly for one of the contenders for the presidency. Instead, they vote to elect presidential electors (of course many people do not realize this when they vote). As in the past, each state is given a number of electors based on the number of members of Congress it has.

21. When Does the Electoral College Meet? • The Constitution provides that the electors shall meet in their respective State capitol buildings. • They meet on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December. • They each cast a vote for President and Vice President. • The ballots are then sent registered mail to the president of the Senate (the current VP). • He then opens them and counts them before a joint session of Congress. • Whomever receives the majority is declared the winner (this is the actual moment of election for the President).

22. Electoral College

23. Flaws in the Electoral College • There are three major flaws in the electoral college. We shall consider each:

24. Flaw One • The winner of the popular vote (the person who gets the most votes cast for him/her by the voters) may not win. • The 48 winner-take-all States are the problem. • Four times this has happened. Most recently in 2000.

25. Defect Two • The electors promise to vote for a specific candidate but there is NOTHING preventing them from switching their votes. • Several States have imposed laws that bind their electors, but these laws are probably not constitutional. • An elector has switched her/his votes eleven occasions, and in none of these elections did it have any bearing on the outcome.

26. Defect Three • If no candidate receives a majority of electors’ votes, the HOR chooses the President. • In the present, most people do not want the House choosing the President.

27. Why the power of the presidency has increased. • 1. Only one individual holds that office. He is free to focus his energies in whatever areas he chooses. Congress is made up of hundreds of individuals, each with her/his own opinions. • 2. As society has become more complex, the people have demanded more government involvement in various areas. As chief executive, these increased duties have fallen on the office of the President.

28. Why the power of the presidency has increased. • 3. Various national crises have required that the President act decisively. This has often served to increase the power of the presidency. For example, during the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the habeas corpus protections in the Constitution • 4. Congress itself has passed laws that have increased the power of the President. • 5. The President can attract the attention of the public easier than Congress. This allows presidents to use public pressure to their advantage. Presidents often use the media to influence public opinion.

29. The President’s Executive Powers • We shall examine four areas of executive power: • A. Executing the law • B. The Ordinance Power • C. The Appointing Power • D. The Removal Power

30. A. Executing the Law • The President must carry out (execute) all of the laws that are passed by Congress, even if the President disagrees with the law. • However, the Congress may not state specifically how to carry out a law. • This is often left up to the executive branch of government (the President and the people who work for him).

31. B. The Ordinance Power • The President has the power to issue an executive order (a rule or regulation that has the effect of law). • The power comes from the Constitution and Congress. • Congress passes many laws that it expects the President and his subordinates to execute. • However, these laws are often vague and general. • The President must be able to add specificity to them by issuing executive orders.

32. c. The Appointing Power • The President personally appoints most of the top positions in the executive branch. Congress then approves his choices.

33. Individuals Who Are Appointed Directly By the President • Ambassadors and other diplomats • Cabinet members and their top aids • The heads of independent government agencies • All federal judges, marshals, and attorneys • All officers in the armed forces

34. D. The Removal Power • This is the other side of the appointment power. The President may remove individuals that he appoints from office. • In the case of Myers v. United States the Supreme Court found that Woodrow Wilson’s removal of a postmaster without consulting Congress was legal. • However, in the case of Humphrey’s Executor vs. United States, the Supreme Court said that Congress can pass laws that describe under what conditions the President can remove individuals from office.

35. Specific Power of the President • The President has the power to negotiate treaties with other countries. • However the Senate must consent to the treaty (not ratify) by a 2/3 vote; this is often difficult to do. • Thus there have been times when the chief executive has had to use roundabout methods. • When President Tyler wanted to annex Texas, he did so by getting Congress to pass a joint resolution okaying the move. • This only took a majority. This tactic has been used on a number of occasions.

36. Executive Agreements • Many agreements between foreign nations and the United States are made by executive agreement. • An executive agreement is a promise made by the President. • It does not require a vote of Congress. Presidents who follow the President that made the agreement honor the promise by tradition, not by law. • Executives agreements are not found in the Constitution. They add tremendous power to the presidency, but skirt the will of Congress.

37. The Power of Recognition • When the President receives the diplomatic representative of another state, the President is exercising the power of recognition. • This is a powerful weapon, because it says that the United States is recognizing a nation as a legitimate foreign power. • However, it is not saying that it approves of all of the actions of a nation. • This is a powerful tool, because to deny diplomatic recognition to a nation is to deny it a portion of its legitimacy in the world community.

38. Executive Office of the President • The Executive Office of the President is the name given to several agencies that are the right arm of the President: • the White House Office • National Security Council • the Office of Management and Budget • the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Council of Economics, • along with several smaller agencies. We shall consider two of these agencies.

39. The White House Office • This houses the President’s key staff. • These individuals have jobs on one of the two wings that are on either side of the White House. • The President’s chief of staff directs all operations in the White House. • He/she is among the most powerful and influential people in the government.

40. The National Security Council • The National Security Council (N.S.C.). The Presidents most trusted foreign affairs advisors sit on this council. • It includes the President, Vice President, and the secretaries of state and defense. • Much of the work of the top secret Central Intelligence Agency is done at the direction of the N.S.C. • The N.S.C.’s principal job is to advice the president. It is among the most secretive organizations in government.

41. The President’s Cabinet • Today, the President’s cabinet are the heads of the executive departments, such as the defense department (headed by the secretary of defense). • The Constitution does not provide for a cabinet. It is a tradition that has evolved and grown over time. • The President appoints his cabinet, but his appointees are confirmed by the Senate.