Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Period 4-A
Burns
Chapter 12 Outline Notes
A. Intoductory Paragraphs
I. The President
a. The President is both one of the most powerful, yet one of the weakest world leders
i. Why the President has great power
The President gets to appoint Supreme Cout Justices
The President gets to deploy the United States army at his whim
ii. Why the president has great weakness
Congress can shoot down prsidential bills and proposals
Compared to world leaders in other countries such as prime ministers, the
President does not get as many actions passed
Also, presidents may be removed from office at the behest of Congress
B. Presidents and prime Ministers
I. The President
II.
a. The Popularly Elected president is an American invention
i. Only sixteen nations have a directly elected president and thirteen of these
nations are in North and South America
b. The subsitution to a president is generally a prime minister
i. Prime ministers rule over arliaments
A parliament only has two houses
In a parliament, the prime minister is selected by the majority party
Voters choose who is a member of parliament
c. Presidents are often outsiders
i. Presidents ecome president by winning votes
Presidential candidates like to disassociate themselves with the mess in
Washington
Only 4 of the last 12 presidents had served in Congress before being elected
d. Presidents Choose Cabinet Members from Outside Congress
i. Uner the Constitution, no member of Congress or the court system can hole a
place in the executive branch execepth the President Pro Tempore
Of the 14 members of Clintons first cabinet, only 3 had been selected from
Congress
Most cabinet members were personal friends etc., representatives of
important constituencies, experts on policy issues, or some of all 3
ii. The members of a prime ministers cabinet are always chosen from the parliament
e. Presidents Have No Guaranteed Majority in the Legislature
i. A prime ministers party always has a majority in parliament while a presidents
party sometimes doesn't have majority in Congress
Congress is often controled by the opposing party
Often even if one party has majority control, they work at different
preferenes
When Kennedy was president, he a majority in Congress but he still couldn't
get bills passed
Only Lyndon Johnson and FDR had any true success in getting their bills
passed
C. Divided Government
I. Divided Government
a. 2/3rds of the elections between 1952 and 1960 created divided government
b. When George Bush became president in 2000, it was only the third time sice 1969
that the executive branch and Congress were under control from the same partyin a
unified government
i. This was until ine senator went democratic
c. Americans say they dislike divided government
i. There are two things wrong with this statement
It is not clear that divided government makes gridlock
It is not clear if gridlock even exists
II. Does Gridlock Matter
a. It is difficult to tell if divided government is more or less productive than unified
i. This is hard to tell because unified government is a myth
Periods of unified government tend to not be so unified
The only time unified government can occur is when the same ideologcally
based party is in a majority in both places
III.Is policy Gridlock Bad
a. An American President has less ability to decide than a prime minister
i. Some may think that if its the job of the president to lead a country, then is is
alarming that the president can't pass laws
The only solution woiuld be to change the Constitution
b. Americans who hate gridlock aren't likely to make sweeping Constitutional changes
c. In fact some Americans actually seem to like gridlock
i. of Americans were likely to vote for one party Congressionally and the other
one Presidentially
d. Gridlock is a neccesary part of a representative democracy
i. This system is the opposite of a direct democracy
VI.The Jacksonians
a. Jacksons presidency ushered in broad changes to the American presidency
i. Jackson instituted 12 vetoes none of which were overturned, this was the
most until Andrew Johnson
ii. Jacksons belief in a strong central presidency was to ultimately triumph
VII. The Reemergence of Congress
a. After Jackson's rain, for the next 100 years except under Lincoln, Polk and
Cleveland, the executive branch was subordinate to Congress
b. Only Lincoln's expansive use of power was to show any executive authority
i. Lincoln used these powers by vaguely interpreting the second article of the
Constitution especially those powers he believed were implied, or inherent
ii. After Lincoln Congress became the principal federal power
c. It is showed that only in the cases of emergency, or particularly strong willed
presidents does the executive branch gain powers
i. It is showed that he idea that the President is the figurehead of America is
wrong and that Congress is the most in control
This increase struggles between the 2 branches
E. The Powers of the President
I. The Presidents Powers
a. Powers of the president alone
i. The Commander and Chief
ii. Commisioner of officers in the armed forces
iii. Reprives and Pardons
iv. Convene Congress in special sessions
v. Receive ambassadors
vi. Execute laws
vii. Executive power
viii. Appoint officials
b. Powers of the President shared with the senat
i. Make treaties
ii. Appoint ambassadors, judges, high officials
c. Powers of the C&C shared with Congress as a whole
i. Approve legislation
d. The presidents experessed powers do not seem as impressive but vague phrases in
the constitution as the presidents duties are to take cares that laws be faithfully
executed have become elastic
e. Also, the American people are looking more to the president as a leader
F. The Office of the President
I. Assistants
a. The Amount of assistants for the President have largely increased
i. Presidents make it deliberately hard to keep track of how many assistants they
have
II. The White House Office
a. The Presidents assistants have offices in the white house
b. There are 3 ways a president may organize his staff
i. In a pyramid structure
A strong structured hieracrchy
ii. In a circular structure
where assistants report directly to the president
iii. In an ad hoc structure
where everyone deals directly with the president
c. It is common for presidents to mix structures
d. Each structure has its advantages and disadvantages
i. A pyramid structure is nice and ordered but a president could easily be
misinformed
ii. The circular strategy gives more info,but confuses everyone
iii. The ad hoc one gives the president the most information, in fact almost too much
e. Assistants do it for the perks of power instead of mostly material incentives such as
money etc.
III. The Executive Office of the Presidents
a. Agencies in the executive office report directly to him
b. Agencies Include
i. Office of Management and Budget
ii. Central Intelligence Agency
iii. Council of Economic Advisors
iv. Office of Personnel Management
v. Officeof the U.C. Trade Representative
c. The OMB is the most important
IV.The Cabinet
a. It is a product of tradition and hope
b. The seating of the cabinet members depends on the age of the organization headed
c. The President appoints and controls vast more members of his/her cabinet than the
prime ministers of other countries
V. Independent Agencies, Commissions, and Judgships
a. The President also appoints heads to about 4 dozen other minor orgnizations
i. The president is able to fill federal courts subject to the approval of the senate
ii. The senate has 120 days to vote on Presidential appointees an dif they don't act in
that time period, the appointtee stays in office
G. Who Gets Appointed
I. The President rarely knows who he/she is appointing
a. Appointees come from, foundations, law firms, think tanks...
b. A president is lucky if their cabinet members to agree with them him/her
c. Cabinet members generally aren't government lifers while cabinet members in a
parliamentary government are generally parliament lifers
d. Before 1824, the post of secretar of the state was seen as being a stepping stone to
becoming the President
e. It has become clear that it would be an egregrious blunder not to have an African
American serve in a Presidents cabinet
H. Presidential Character
I. Presidential Flair
a. Presidents bring their own styles to the office of the presidents
i. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Orderly, military style to the white house, delegation of authority
ii. John Kennedy
A bold, articulating style of president
iii. Lyndon Johnson
A master legislative strategist
iv. Richard Nixon
Highly intelligent man with a deep knowledge and interest in foreign policy
and a large distrust in the media
v. Gerald Ford
More of an at home give and take discussion type of president
vi. Jimmy Carter
An outsider to Washington who was proud of it
vii. Ronald Reagan
An outsider who wanted to set broad dirctions of Congress
viii. George Bush
More of a hands on manager who lacked speaking skills
ix. Bill Clinton
Paid alot of attention to public policy and preffered informal discussions
x. George W. Bush
He was an outsider with a difference that gave him the advantage, his father
had been president, deeply religious, ran a very tight ship
I. The Power to Persuade
I. The Three Audiences
a. Presidents persuasive powers are aimed at 3 audiences
i. The most important is fellow politicians
ii. The second is party activists and office holders
iii. The public
Presidents no one slip up of the tongue will mess up their campaigns so they
are cautious in everything they say
II. Popularity and Influence
a. The effects of coattails have declined through today
b. Members of Congress find it risky to campaign aganist the policies of a president
c. A presidents popularity is measured by the amount of legislation they get passed
d. There are 4 factors used to be able to measure a presidents popularity
i. If he is successful on a big bill and not on trivial ones then his popularity ratings
will be off
ii. a president could not take a side on a presidential issue keeping his ratings higher
iii. if most of his bills are passed out and a few get passed while the rest stay their,
the president looks more popular
iv. factors nobody even the president can control
III.The Decline in Popularity
a. Presidential Popularity is an invaluble asset but it always seems to decline
b. Only presidents serving in extraordinary times have really easy times with Congress
and presidents in normal times such as Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, and Carter only had
average 1st years
L. Presidential Transition
I. The Vice President
a. 8 times has the Vice president become president after their colleagues abidicated
i. The Vice President is not the best way to become president
ii. The Preseidents only other assigned duty to stepping in ios to break a tie in the
Senate
iii. Absent a crisis, the V.P. Is at best an advisor to the President