The Executive
Branch
The President
and the Bureaucracy
The
presidency is more than just a single person, it is a complex office. It is the only office at any level of
government in this country that is elected nationally. If one were to look strictly at the
Constitutional criteria specifying this office, it would appear to be much less
powerful than most people believe.
Still, today we look to this office as the central point of our
government. The Founding Fathers,
concerned with the concentration of a lot of power in a single office, intended
to keep this office weak and place most of the authority of the new government
in the legislature (Congress). To be
effective the president must rely on his powers to persuade Congress to go
along with his programs.
The
Constitution says very little about the presidency. Article II establishes the office and states
that the “executive Power shall be vested in a President of the
The
Constitution lays out the basic requirements that one must have in order to
become president:
1) must be 35 years of age
2) a natural born
3) a resident of the
The
Constitution then lays out specific powers that are granted to the president:
1) Commander in Chief of armed
forces (remember, this does not give him the ability to declare war, only
Congress can do that; it does allow him to commit troops to military actions)
2) Make treaties with other
nations, subject to confirmation by a 2/3’s vote of the U.S. Senate
3) Nominate foreign
ambassadors, subject to confirmation by a simple majority of the Senate
4) Nominate federal judges,
subject to confirmation by a simple majority of the Senate
5) Receive ambassadors of other
nations (important because it confers diplomatic recognition of other
governments)
6) May grant pardons for
federal crimes (excepts impeachments)
7) Present to Congress “from
time to time” information on the State of the
8) Convene both Houses of
Congress on extraordinary occasions
9) Adjourn Congress if both the
House and the Senate cannot agree on adjournment
10)Nominate officials as
provided for by Congress (when new posts are created because Congress creates a
new department or agency, the president is allowed to name the head of that post)
subject to confirmation by a simple majority of the Senate
11)Fill administrative
vacancies during Congressional recesses
12)Recommend legislation to
Congress
13)Veto legislation, which
could be overridden by a 2/3’s vote of both Houses of Congress
Compared
to the powers given to Congress, the above are much less substantial. Please notice that a good number of the
powers of the president are contingent upon approval by the Senate. This was indeed deliberate and part of the
concept of separation of powers which we have discussed many times in
class. Government power is to be,
theoretically, limited.
Foundations of the Modern
Presidency
What
has happened over time, however, is that the office of the president has gained
considerable power and authority. Over
the course of American history, the president’s constitutional powers have been
extended in practice beyond the intentions of the Founding Fathers. Though only Congress can declare war,
presidents have made war by sending troops into military action. Presidents have power over
Your
textbook discusses reasons why presidential powers have evolved over time. There are three key theories of presidential
power that account for this, as well as a historical progression of expansion
of power at the federal level:
1) The Whig theory of presidential power holds that the presidency is a
limited or constrained office whose occupant was confined to the exercise of
expressly granted constitutional authority.
Most of the early presidents of this country followed this theory in how
they exercised the power of the presidency.
2) The stewardship theory of presidential power calls for a strong,
assertive presidential role that, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, directs
the president “to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such
action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws.” Most presidents since the turn of the 20th
Century have been more of this model than previous presidents.
3) The prerogative theory of presidential power, which is not mentioned in
the text, carries the role of the president into more assertive and aggressive
areas, often going outside the Constitution and the nation’s laws. This theory of “paramount necessity” as
defined by Abraham Lincoln and used by Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon
pushes the direction of the presidential exercise of power into imperial or
dictatorial areas, raising legal and ethical questions regarding its use. Food for thought: Do you consider the
presidency of George W. Bush to be of this type?
4) Originally the states were
very strong in the new republic and the
5) Because of the president’s
constitutional authority as chief diplomat and military commander plus the
special demands of foreign policy leadership, the president, not Congress, has
taken the lead in addressing the
6) With increased regulatory
and policy responsibilities, public pressure for leadership in the areas of the
economy, education, environmental protection and other areas, presidential
authority has grown in the domestic areas as well.
The Electoral College
Perhaps
no aspect of the presidency is as confusing as how it is that we go about
choosing the president. The president is
not chosen by direct popular election.
Instead the Founding Fathers created a system of indirect election of
the president known as the Electoral
College. There were several reasons
why the Founding Fathers chose to create this method of choosing the president,
but two are more important than the others.
First of all was the conflict between the states. Each of the states was very suspicious and
jealous of the other states. With
population differences there was concern that a direct election of the president
would favor the states that had larger populations. Second, was a distrust of the will of the
people. It was thought that the people
might make an unwise decision depending on who ran for office. The Founding Fathers thus wanted a way to
temper the will of the people.
Originally the electors were to be chosen by the states, most probably
each state’s legislatures, and would act as the most informed of the citizens
of the nation, thus choosing the most qualified leader.
By
design each state was provided with the same number of electors as they had
members of Congress (
After
the presidency of George Washington, the results of the use of the Electoral
College were mixed. The election of 1800
was the first to provide controversy.
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received equal numbers of electoral
votes, and the House was required to settle the election. It took 36 ballots for the House to finally
choose
Removal of the President
The
Founding Fathers were aware that under certain extraordinary circumstances a
president might be required to be removed from office. Thus they created a process to provide for
this. It is also the process by which
federal judges can be removed from the bench.
In short, it is referred to impeachment, but it is actually a two step
process involving both houses of Congress.
The Constitution states that a president “shall be removed
from Office on Impeachment
for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and
Misdemeanors.” Exactly what constitutes
these transgressions has been subject of much debate among scholars over the
years. Essentially, it comes down to
what Congress believes about a president and his conduct in office.
The first step in the process
of removal of a president from office is impeachment. This occurs in the House of
Representatives. Again, the Constitution
is vague on the exact process, but what has happened historically is that there
have been hearings within the House followed by a vote. If a simple majority of the members of the
House vote for impeachment, then the process moves to the Senate. At this point the Constitution states that
this step constitutes a trial, and must be presided over by the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court. At the end of the
trial the members of the Senate vote for or against conviction. If, by a 2/3’s vote of the members of the
Senate, the president is found guilty, then he is removed from office and is
not allowed to ever hold public office again.
No president has ever been
removed from office. Two presidents,
Andrew Johnson and William Clinton, both were impeached by the House, but
failed conviction by the Senate (Johnson by a mere one vote), thus avoiding removal
from office. President Richard Nixon,
who was under investigation by the House and the Senate for crimes associated
with the Watergate break-in, was forced to resign the presidency due to the
fact that he knew he was going to be impeached and convicted. Rather than face the humiliating process he
chose resignation instead.
Organization of the
Presidency
The
president is often called the “chief executive” because he oversees the
executive branch of government. In
today’s government this is a huge task.
The
modern presidency is a complex office and a very large organization. We cannot begin to understand the presidency
without also having some type of understanding of the bureaucracy that serves
underneath the president. When we speak
of the growth of government, we mostly mean the growth of the executive
branch. Before we start to consider what
we mean by “bureaucracy”, let’s take a look at the organization of the
presidency and the executive branch.
White
House staff: most direct and personal
services. Includes president’s Chief of
Staff, personal assistants, close personal advisors, press agents, legislative
and group liaison aides, and other special assistants. (totals around 600
people who work in the White House).
Presidents organize the White House staff the way they want them. Most presidents employ a hierarchical
structure with the chief of staff at the top overseeing the rest of the staff.
Executive Office of the President.
Provides support services to the president in several policy areas. Three major policymaking bodies are here:
National Security Council (NSC), Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), and Office
of Management and Budget. (several other small units also exist to serve the president,
but these are the main ones in EOP).
National Security Council. A committee that links the president’s key foreign and military
policy advisors together. Formal
members include the president, the vice-president, secretary of state,
secretary of defense, and the president’s national security advisor, who runs
the council’s staff. The advisor and the
staff provide the president with information and policy recommendations on
national security.
Council of Economic Advisors. Only three
members, each appointed by the president, who advice him on economic
policy. Prepare an annual report (Annual
Report of the Council of Economic Advisors) and help the president make policy
on inflation, unemployment, and other economic matters.
Office of Management and Budget. Used to be called Bureau of the Budget. A few appointees, but
mostly career officials (approx. 600).
Most important job is to prepare the president’s budget. Reviews proposals from various agencies and
determines whether they want to let an agency take the proposal to Congress. Reviews budgets from agencies and puts them
into a single overall budget proposal to go to Congress. Also plays an important role in reviewing
regulations proposed by departments and agencies.
Bureaucracy
What
is bureaucracy? Simply, it is a method
of organizing people and work. It is
based on the principles of hierarchical authority, job specialization, and
formalized rules. As a form of
organization, bureaucracy is often seen as the most efficient means of getting
people to work together on tasks of great magnitude and complexity. Unfortunately, it is also prone to waste,
complex and confusing rules, and rigidity.
Textbook: a major theme you should be aware of is the
current initiative to “re-invent” government.
The
1) The
Cabinet. There are 14 (now 15) cabinet
(executive) departments headed by a secretary who serves as a member of the
president’s cabinet and is responsible for establishing the department’s
general policy and overseeing its operations. Originally only 4:
State
Treasury
War (now called Defense)
Justice
Others
today include:
Energy
Education
Housing and Urban Development
Health and Human Services
Transportation
Labor
Commerce
Agriculture
Interior
Veteran Affairs
-
Homeland Security
All of the heads are appointed by the president,
subject to confirmation by the Senate.
All have been created by Congress, but exist under the executive branch
to oversee large policy areas.
2)
Independent agencies. These have
narrower areas of responsibility than cabinet departments. Examples include NASA, the CIA, and NOAA.
3)
Regulatory agencies. Created
when Congress recognizes the importance of close and continuous regulation of
an economic activity. They can
issue regulations, implement them, and judge compliance with them. Examples include the SEC, EPA, and NRC.
4)
Government corporations. These charge
clients for their services and are governed by a board of directors. They receive federal funding to help defray
operating expenses, and their directors are appointed by the president with
Senate approval. Examples include the
U.S. Postal Service, and the FDIC.
5)
Presidential commissions. Commissions
(some permanent, some temporary) that provide ongoing recommendations to the
presidents in particular areas of responsibility.
More
than 90 percent of federal employees are hired through merit criteria. Merit hiring protects government workers from
being fired for partisan reasons. Important to remember that federal employees have few rights of
collective action.
The
president has substantial appointment powers.
All of the heads of these departments are appointed. The president also appoints directors and top
deputies of federal agencies, members of federal commissions, and heads of
regulatory agencies. In all the president appoints over 5000 positions. This allows him to have substantial influence
over policy of all of these various departments and agencies.
However,
this can also be a weakness. Hard to know 5000 people, and hard to control them all. Also, as we discuss the bureaucracy, it is
important to remember that the overwhelming majority of them are not appointed
but hired within a merit system, thus they are permanent employees usually more
loyal to the organization than to the president.
The
primary function of administrative agencies is policy implementation, which is
to say that they carry out the authoritative decisions of Congress, the
president, and the courts. The
bureaucracy does not simply administer policy; it also makes it and judges it (quasi-powers – mimic the powers of the
three branches of government: quasi-legislative, quasi-executive, and
quasi-judicial.).
1) the bureaucracy initiates ideas
for legislative programs.
2) Administrative agencies
develop public policy in the process of implementing it. Through rule making, administrative agencies
decide how the law will operate in practice.
3) Agencies are charged with
delivery of services.
4) Agencies determine whether
others are complying with policy.
The
characteristics that we associate today with bureaucracy were first noted by a
German sociologist named Max Weber. Was
doing a study on authority, and found these common characteristics:
1) hierarchical authority structure. Hierarchy refers to an organizational
arrangement that puts few people with maximum power at the top and many people
with little power at the bottom.
2) Task specialization. Experts instead of amateurs perform technical
jobs. People work on specific tasks
rather than several things.
3) Development of extensive
rules. These may seem nit-picking at
times, but it allows the organization to handle similar cases in a similar manner
instead of capriciously.
4) Operates on the merit
principle. Entrance and promotion are
awarded on the basis of demonstrated abilities rather than on “who you know”.
5) Behave impersonally. Allows all clients to be treated
impartially. In theory, they are
politically neutral.
6) Defined jurisdictions. These are created to accomplish definite and
limited goals.
In
reality, modern bureaucracies differ greatly from this model. Modern characteristics include:
1) instead of a single administrator
heading an agency they are often headed by boards and commissions which act to
diffuse authority and accountability.
2) The are often characterized by
overlapping jurisdictions. Limits on
goals and authority are obscured, which leads to confusion and competition
among agencies. Often there is also
competition over funding, and agencies can at times be characterized as being
overzealous. Furthermore, despite the
overlap, there are often times when items will fall between the cracks of
various agencies.
3) Bureaucracies are not politically
neutral. It is very difficult to get
personnel to divorce themselves of feelings towards subjects within the
political process.
4) Rules designed to ensure
consistency and fairness sometimes contradict one
another.
5) The role of the “expert” is
often unclear. In addition, experts
often disagree with one another, causing confusion over which path to follow.
6) There is often a reliance on
managers to oversee policy implementation and to act as brokers between
citizens and elected officials. Layers
of management often isolate the citizen-customer from key decision makers,
causing great frustration to the citizens involved in the process.
7) Elected officials, primarily
the executive branch, frequently reorganize agencies in an attempt to make them
more accountable to the legislative process.
Big government came about from a variety of
factors. Among these are:
1) The Industrial Revolution. The mechanization of farms and ranches and
the technological revolution led to the urbanization of the nation.
2) The combination of a
pseudo-laissez-faire business philosophy and Social Darwinism eventually
produced the conditions that led to an unpredictable boom-and-bust economy and
widespread poverty.
3) Political developments emanating
from these economic problems led eventually to national government intervention
in an attempt to curb the worst excesses of big business and to protect those
who were unable to protect themselves.
The first bureaucratic agency created to protect
groups was the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) which was created in 1887
to regulate railroads, which had been pricing small farmers out of business by
charging exorbitant freight rates.
The scope of government continued to expand after
World War II primarily as the increasing complexity of society also created a
need for governmental expansion. With
the demand for new services and rapid population growth the size and scope of
state and local government also increased.
The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 signaled major
political and ideological changes. The
role of states in the American federal system was increased dramatically. Cuts in federal funding forced reductions in
state and local social programs previously financed by the national
government. Citizens began to question
the high cost of governmental services and to demand more accountability from
the administrative state.
Bureaucrats seek first survival and then growth for
three basic reasons:
1) To protect their
jobs.
2) To promote their
organization’s programs.
3) To serve their
clientele.
Clientele groups
are the groups that are supposed to be regulated by the bureaucratic
agency. Regulation frequently becomes
promotion as the relationship between the two matures.
A civil
service system is one
in which workers are hired on merit (performance on written tests or other
forms of examinations) and are evaluated on the basis of their job performance.
Bureaucrats often have considerable administrative discretion.
They are relatively free to use their own judgment as to just how the
laws will be carried out.
Goal displacement is the shifting of bureaucratic orientation, the replacement of one
goal for another. In this case the
public interest is forgotten and the agencies’ interests and those of clientele
groups become paramount.