Presidential Power
Do our Presidents have too much or not enough power? Why or why not?

The President of the United States has the primary duty of ensuring that all U.S. laws are carried out properly and that the federal government runs effectively. He or she does not have the power to introduce or enforce new legislation; this power belongs to Congress. However, he or she is elected "for the people, by the people" and has the power to veto any bill legislature approves. This is significant authority, but ultimately, Congress (elected Senate and House of epresentatives members) works as a unit to create and lobby for the laws that ultimately govern our society and can override a Presidential veto.

The President serves as Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, oversees foreign policy, creates treaties with foreign nations and appoints ambassadors to the U.N. And other countries. This is considerable power…...

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References

(2011, April 25). Multiple Inequities: A new law lessens, but doesn't end, the sentencing disparities for crack cocaine. New York Times. p. 24.

(2012, April 18). Abiding by the Fair Sentencing Act. New York Times. p. 26.

Beckmann, M.N., & Kumar, V. (2011). How presidents push, when presidents win: A model of positive presidential power in U.S. lawmaking. Journal Of Theoretical Politics, 23(1), 3-20. doi:10.1177/0951629810378545

Presidents also fulfill the role of leader of their political party. Although this power is not mentioned in the Constitution, presidents represent the best interests of their party and work to make sure that members of their political party get elected to positions within the government.
The role of the president has changed greatly since its inception. Some of these changes have been because of the personality of the president involved. Tenacious presidents like Abraham Lincoln greatly increased the war powers of the presidency during the Civil War. Franklin D. oosevelt took charge of the nation's finances during the Great Depression and launched the New Deal. The Vietnam Era brought a change as people reacted negatively to the powers of the president in running a war that Congress had not declared. Subsequent scandals like Watergate also had the effect of decreasing the powers of the presidency. The power spectrum bounced…...

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References

Crabb, C., Holt, P. (1989). Invitation to Struggle: Congress, the President, and Foreign Policy. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.

Turner, M., Switzer, K., Redden, C., (1996). American Government: Principles and Practices. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

Presidential Power
While the scope of modern presidential power far exceeds the very limited but potent powers that the President is given in Article II of the Constitution, it does not appear that those powers have increased dramatically over the last 20 years, especially when one compares the President's power with congressional power. It is important to keep in mind that most presidents have "used their implied and informal presidential powers to enhance their personal influence" (Annenberg Foundation, 2014). This began with Washington and, in many ways, it has grown over the course of history, resulting in an Executive Branch that is more powerful than anticipated at the time of the Constitution. However, while the President is, nominally, the head of the Executive Branch, it is critical to keep in mind that the Executive is extremely dependent upon the Congress. "Congress controls the purse strings for all the branches of…...

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References

Krinsky, A. (2013, July 9). A four-party system for the U.S. Retrieved September 16, 2014

from The Huffington Post website:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-krinsky/a-fourparty-system-for-the-us_b_3531406.html 

U.S. Const. amend. XXII.

Power of the American President [...] how the U.S. President derives most of his power from Formal Powers. The U.S. President is the Commander-in-Chief of the nation, and probably the most powerful leader in the world. The Formal Powers of the President are formidable and keep the President powerful, and yet not so powerful that he takes over the entire government. The Formal Powers give power, but keep the leader in check, which is a vital part of democracy.
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

The Formal Powers of the President are certainly important and formidable, for they give the person who is arguably the most powerful leader in the world some extraordinary authority and control. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and can (as we recently saw with George W. Bush), command them into war, even without the support of allied nations or the United Nations. This is probably the most…...

S. interests in that part of the world. Then, on January 17, 1991, the U.S. launched the first attack, with more than 4,000 bombing runs. After 100 hours, Bush called off the offensive, saying he wanted to minimize U.S. casualties.
Though Bush was criticized for this withdrawal being premature, the U.S. made a retreat from Kuwait after the successful offensive, and Bush's approval ratings reached new highs.

Bush announced in early 1992, that he would run again for President, and his reelection looked probable. However, higher taxes and uncontrolled economic problems brought his term to an end in 1992, and Bush lost to Bill Clinton. Bush was running as a conservative, but so were oss Perot and Pat Buchanan (who ran against him for the epublican nomination).

In order to defeat Pat Buchanan's bid for the epublican nomination, Bush declared even more conservative stances. Though he defeated Pat Buchanan, oss Perot eroded much…...

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References

Farnsworth, S.J. And Lichter, S.R. (2004), New presidents and network news: covering the first year in office of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 34:3, 29 Jul 2004, 674.

Frye, T. (1999). Changes in Post-Communist Presidential Power: Political Economy Explanation. A paper prepared for Ohio State University. Retrieved November 19, 2008 at  http://kellogg.nd.edu/events/pdfs/Frye.pdf 

Kelley, C.S., and Marshall, B.W. (2006). The Last Mover Advantage: Presidential Powers and the Role of Signing Statements, Chicago, IL. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved November 19, 2008 at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p139737_index.html.

Mann, J. (2002). The ghost of the oval office, New York Times, October 4, 2002.

Presidential and Congressional Powers
In the simplest of terms, the differences in powers between Congress and the President is that Congress makes laws and the President enforces them. But, that description does a great injustice to the complexities of the roles of each. Congress is granted "all legislative powers" by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Those powers include the making of laws, coining money, declaring war, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, and maintaining the military. The powers of the President (Executive Branch) are outlined in Article II of the Constitution. They include the power of appointment and removal, the creation of executive orders, limited legislative powers, veto power, pardoning power, power to make treaties, and military powers separate from those of Congress. Both sets of powers, in conjunction with the Judicial Branch, form a balance of powers within the Federal Government. It is the purpose of this paper to…...

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Referenced

Hamilton, J. & Madison, J. "The Federalist Papers" 52-67, 70-77. Online. Internet. Avail Acc: Dec 13, 2002.http://www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/federalist.Info

Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents. Seattle: Free Press, 1991.

Powers and ights of the Constitution
INSTITUTIONAL POWE: The Constitution gives the federal government the right to form a military service, including what is now the National Guard (Army National Guard, 2011), though it does so in cooperation with the states and localities to serve their interests as well. This section is important for a number of reasons, including the fact that it reinforces the differences between the state and the federal government without weakening the role of the states to protect and defend themselves. It also helps ensure that the troops and resources are readily available in each locality when urgent issues of various kinds result. They can be used for natural disasters, various forms of social control, helping in other times or need, as well as to address more complicated issues like war and terrorism. This latter issue has become most important recently as localities look to be…...

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REFERENCES

Army National Guard (2011). Legal basis of the national guard. Viewable at http://www.arng.army.mil/aboutus/history/Pages/ConstitutionalCharteroftheGuard.aspx

Bancuk, L. (n.d.), Right to assemble. Learning to Give.  http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper57.html 

Crosses of Lafayette (2007). Private website. Viewable at  http://lafayettecrosses.blogspot.com/ .

Cuban Missile Crisis (2011). Viewable at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis .

cs.indiana.edu/statecraft/warpow.html).
While the president has the power to veto proposed bills and laws he does not have the right to declare war against the wishes of Congress. He has continued to assert however that Congress gave him permission to invade Iraq through other means including the bills about the war on terrorism (the UI to TrackBack this entry is:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005 / 12 / 20 / did-not-expand / trackback/).

In the case of the invasion of Iraq the president was met with staunch opposition. In fact a federal lawsuit was filed in Boston stating the president did so without the approval of congress.

The constitution of the United States is worded in a way that prevents presidents from declaring war without the express approval and support of congress (13 February 2003 Suit questions Bush's war powers by David D. Haskell

United Press International (http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/caab/articles/federallawsuit.htm)

Bush claims that the resolution about Iraq in 2003 gave him permission to…...

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References

Congress Explicitly Said War Resolution Did Not Expand Executive Power

 http://thinkprogress.org/2005/ 12/20/did-not-expand/

War powers act  http://www.cs.indiana.edu/statecraft/warpow.html 

13 February 2003 Suit questions Bush's war powers by David D. Haskell

He seems to draw easy causal connections between policy and personality that deny the exterior circumstances of history. For example, he suggests that Hoover's rigid personality made him unable to accept changes in classical economic theory during the beginning of the Great Depression, and to adopt a more Keynesian approach. Barber asserts that it was not the conventional wisdom of the time that hampered Hoover as much as his own character, despite the fact that few people really could assuredly state they had the 'answer' to the financial crisis at that time. The adaptive-negative aspects of Johnson's personality made that president similarly resistant to the idea of pulling out of Vietnam, and his egoism made him unwilling to be seen as 'losing' the war -- but what about the pressures of the Cold War during that era? Historians also might find some objection to Barber's psychoanalyzing so many major…...

Presidential Disaster Declaration Process
Preparedness and Mitigation from Disasters in the Twentieth Century

Numerous disasters have always brought intensive destruction to the environment and human lives over the years. The twentieth century, however, has experienced rather greater disasters, which have called for intervention through ensuring mitigation and preparedness. The presidential disaster declaration process is aimed at fulfilling the ambitions of preparing for disasters. These disasters include both the man-made and natural ones, ranging from the outbreak of fires, contagious diseases that need extreme control, earthquakes and hurricanes, the nightmare of global warming, political instability and many others. The essay evaluates analytically, the need for preparedness through the presidential disaster declaration process, which is a strategy to getting assistance. The evolution of the process in the twentieth century to strengthen hazard management is also discussed in the content.

Outline

Introduction

I. What is the presidential disaster declaration (PDD) process?

II. Importance of the PDD process in mitigation…...

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References

Bellamy, J.S. (2009) Cleverland's Greatest Disasters!: 16 Tragic True Tales of Death and Destruction: New York: Gray and Company.

Ec-Council (2010) Disaster Recovery: New York, Cengage Learning.

Kapucu, N. & Alpaslan, Z. (2011) Managing Emergencies and Crises: MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishing.

Oliver, J. & Aldcroft, H.D. (2007) Economic Disasters of the Twentieth Century: New York: Edward Elgar Publishing.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS (1.5 pages requested)
My fellow Americans, the past two years have been tremendously challenging for all of us, as well as for me personally as your president. Tonight, I feel that I have to address a specific problem that has emerged since my election and that I fear is undermining the integrity of the constitutional form of government upon which all of us rely to guarantee the effectiveness of this great democratic republic.

As you know, the two-party political system and the bicameral nature of the American Congress is designed to guard against the usurpation of power by any one political party or group. However, in the last two years, a disturbing pattern has emerged in which some of the safeguards expressly designed and built into this system have been misused very deliberately and systematically for the purpose of achieving purely political goals and at great expense to, rather than…...

Finally, proponents of term limits point out that the aforementioned second-term problems were due to personality, leadership, and policy problems, not clout in Congress alone. In terms of change, the presence of term limits can 'cut' both ways: "On the one hand it is said that not having term limits makes needed change more difficult because of the power that long-time office holders amass. On the other hand, term limits can also be seen as an obstacle to long-term needed political change because it forces a change of leadership at a time when the leader's project might not be ready for such change" (ilpert 2009).

However, the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution suggests that the Founding Fathers envisioned a limited form of government, without a powerful ruling political class, particularly at the executive level. Above all, ashington and his fellow Founding Fathers feared the establishment of a…...

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Works Cited

22: Presidential term limits. (2002, November 27). Post Gazette. Retrieved April 16, 2009 at  http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20021127amendment_22p9.asp 

Wilpert, Gregory. (2009, February 19). An important victory for Venezuela and for socialism.

NACLA. Retrieved April 16, 2009 at  http://nacla.org/node/5526

American Politics
The American President is said to be the most powerful man in the world, but it is also said that the President has limited influence over domestic policy. Even if the President is relatively weak in terms of domestic policy, he still has tremendous power, more than just about anyone else. This paper will analyze the different formal and informal ways in which the President exerts influence over domestic policy. The paper will then examine the question of whether or not the President's authority on domestic affairs is relatively weak. This is an interesting question because it is a question of relativity in which the comparable matters. Compared with the President's powers on foreign affairs, Presidential powers in the realm of domestic affairs are relatively weak. Compared with anybody else's powers, the powers of the President in the realm of domestic affairs is strong; nobody else has as much…...

Typically, applications for pardons are referred for review and non-binding recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the Department of Justice (Pardons and clemency in the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon)."
Those who oppose the pardon power of the president point to the royal misuse of days gone by when the U.S. was still under English rule and pardoning power was abused by members of the royal family throughout history.

Those who support the power of a president to pardon believe it is an elected power with regard to the United States and as such the people have provided the power to their elected president to make pardons available to those he or she sees fit.

A pardon can be granted at any point following the commission of the crime including before a conviction has been handed down, but for the most part individual pardons are granted to those who…...

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References

Pardons and clemency in the United States (accessed 4-10-07)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon 

PRESIDENTIAL PARDON POWER (accessed 4-10-07)  http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju71180.000/hju71180_0f.htm 

Black, Eric (2001)Presidential pardoning power harks back to right of royalty; Presidential pardons were endorsed by the founding fathers and the U.S. Supreme Court.(NEWS)

The domino theory which presumed that the fall of a nation such as Vietnam would cause an entire region to topple to communist influence would underscore Cold War foreign policy for generations, with presidents culturally required to affirm a commitment to the goals of protecting American interests and opposing Russian aims that appeared to be contrary to these interests. Regarding Kennedy, "from his Vienna interview with Khrushchev, through the Berlin crisis during 1961, to the Cuban missile crisis and therafter -- this commitment evidently deepened with experience as Kennedy responded to events." (Neustadt, 170) This is to note that regardless of the perspective which he took into office with him, his increased exposure to the insights and knowledge of the presidency would drive him to view Cold War policy refinement as the highest of priorities.

Accordingly, this mounting knowledge that would show Kennedy to be as much shaped by the role…...

1. The impact of Barack Obama's presidency on race relations in America
2. Obama's approach to foreign policy and its successes and failures
3. Analyzing Obama's healthcare reform, the Affordable Care Act
4. The significance of Obama being the first African American president in the United States
5. Obama's environmental policies and their impact on climate change
6. Evaluating Obama's economic policies and their effects on inequality
7. Obama's legacy in terms of immigration policy and reform
8. How Obama's leadership style and rhetoric influenced public opinion and political discourse
9. Assessing Obama's response to national security threats, such as terrorism and cybersecurity
10. The role of social media....