DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
AND
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Posc 105
LIMITS ON PRESIDENTIAL POWER
- THIS MORNING:
- Limitations on presidential power.
- ROLES AND PERSONALITY:
- A president's character is obviously
important in explaining his or her successes and weaknesses.
- But, as argued repeatedly, institutional
constraints and circumstances including historical
events probably play an even bigger role.
- So, certainly the film "What Happened to
Bill Clinton," has merit. But we also need to
look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the office.
- INSTITUTIONAL AND CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS:
- Proposition: the things that are a
source of a president's power are also potential sources of weakness.
- Public expectations and campaign
rhetoric versus the nature of the problems presidents face:
- Economic transformations and
dislocation, behavior of foreign governments,
transnational entities, and non-governmental groups
- "Control" of the bureaucracy does
not give presidents the power one might think.
- The cabinet
- Nominal under presidential control
departments and agencies often have a life of their own.
- Cabinet secretaries have to fight
being coopted by the bureaucracies their
supposed to supervise.
- Other "bureaucratic" limitations include:
- Bureaucratic permanence and inertia
- Bureaucratic politics
- Arms control
- The "gays in the military" issue
- "Sub-governments" or "iron triangles"
- "Group think" and advisors
- Example: LBJ and Vietnam?
- Separation and fragmentation of power
- Presidents have to be exceptional to
dominate the legislative process.
- Not many have been over long periods of time.
- This observation suggests an inherent
weakness in the office.
- Congress, the Federal Reserve (FED),
the Supreme Court, state governments, and so forth fragment power.
- The absence of mechanisms to create and sustain a governing message
- The national party is not gear to generating
and sustaining specific political agendas.
- Political commentators frequently bemoans
the lack of "vision" on the part of presidents and presidential candidates.
- In point of fact, their message can
sometimes be read as "elect me and I'll deal with programs and policy later."
- "Fishbowl" phenomenon: intense media
scrutiny
- Presidents can "command" a nation's
attention.
- But at the same time they are under
ceaseless eye of the media.
- The contradictions of general-welfare liberalism
- Liberalism versus the "positive state"
- The bottom line is that the political system
and popular culture places enormous burdens on
presidents but does not give them the "tools"
(e.g., strong party leadership) to carry them.
- A final proposition: real reform
involves strengthen party discipline and giving the president more influence over legislation.
- This is the way to maximizing
accountability and hence democracy and increasing political capacity.
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