Unit 5

1. Unit 5 The Presidency, the Bureaucracy and the Judiciary PPT 1

2. Introduction – The Presidency • Presidents operate in an environment filled with checks and balances and competing centers of power. • To be effective, the president must be able to • Mobilize influence • Manage conflict • Negotiate • Compromise

3. The Presidents • Highly personal office – personality DOES make a difference • Americans have two minds about the president: • Want to believe in a powerful president – one who can do good. • Do not like concentrations of power; basically individualistic and skeptical of power.

4. Characteristics of Presidents • Natural-born citizen • 35 years old • Resided in the U.S. for at least 14 years • All presidents have been white (with the exception of Obama who is ½ African American), male and Protestant (with the exception of Kennedy who was Catholic)

5. How they got there • Elections – normal road • 4 year term – 22 Amendment (ratified in 1951) – two terms or 10 years • Only 11 of the 41 presidents before Bill Clinton have actually served two or more full terms. • Since Clinton???

6. How else do they get there • Vice-Presidency: another road to the WH • About 1 in 5 presidents assumed the presidency when the incumbent president either died or resigned. • Main job is waiting: • Presiding over the senate and waiting to break a tie • Recent presidents have involved VP in policy and diplomacy.

7. Impeachment • Political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law • Impeachment refers to a formal accusation, NOT a conviction • HoR may impeach the Pres for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” – requires a simple majority vote

8. Continued… • President is tried by the senate • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides when a president is tried; the VP will preside if a civil officer other than the president has been impeached • The senate may convict and remove the president by a two-thirds vote of the senators present

9. Continued… • Impeachment charges are first heard in the House Judiciary Committee (or by a select committee) which makes recommendations to the full House.

10. Watergate • 1974 – HJC voted to recommend the impeachment of Richard Nixon as a result of the Watergate scandal. • Nixon escaped a certain vote for impeachment by resigning.

11. Impeached Presidents • 1868 – Andrew Johnson; Johnson's acquittal, the votes for conviction being one less than the required two-thirds tally. • 1998 – Bill Clinton; acquitted

12. Presidential Succession • 25th Amendment • Permits the VP to become acting president if the VP and the President’s cabinet determine that the President is disabled or if the President declares his own disability. Also outlines how a recuperated president can reclaim office.

13. Selecting a New VP • The president nominates a new vice president, who assumes the office when both houses of Congress approve the nomination. • Used twice: • Nixon = Gerald Ford (Spiro Agnew resigned) • Ford = Nelson Rockefeller (Nixon resigned)

14. Presidential Powers • Constitutional • Legislative • Administrative

15. Constitutional • National Security • Commander in Chief • Treaties (2/3 senate) • Nominates ambassadors (senate) • Receiving ambassadors

16. Legislative • State of the Union address to Congress • Recommend legislation to Congress • Convene both houses of Congress on extraordinary occasions • Adjourn Congress if House and Senate cannot agree on adjournment • Veto legislation

17. Administrative • Appoint officials as provided for by Congress (majority of senate) • Request written opinions of administrative officials • Fill administrative vacancies during Congressional recess • Grants reprieves and pardons • Appoints federal judges (senate)