Presidential Character

1. Presidential Character The Imperial Presidency

2. What is an Imperial Presidency? • Phrase became popular in the 1960’s • Presidencies that get “out of control” in regards to power and influence • Presidencies that have exceeded constitutional limits

3. Arguments: Imperial Presidency is Increasing • Staffing increased resulting in appts based on personal loyalty to the president, not subject to outside approval • Creates a “royal court” (Nixon, Reagan) • New advisory bodies developed around the presidency, many of which complemented (critics suggest rivaled) the main cabinet departments • Office of Management and Budget, National Security Council • The Senate does not "advise and consent" to appts to the Executive Office of the President (with only a handful of exceptions), as it does with cabinet appts. • They are independent and not accountable • The Presidency relies on powers that exceed the Constitution • foreign policy and war powers often questioned • Presidential secrecy also questioned

4. Arguments: Imperial Presidency is Not Increasing • The Executive Office of the President makes up only a very small part of the federal bureaucracy and the Pres has little influence over appts of most members of the federal bureaucracy • The number of people within the EOP is tiny and there is no institutional continuity at all • The organization and functioning of most of the Federal government is determined by federal law and the President has little power to reorganize most of the federal government

5. Is the president’s power really growing? – NO! • Growth in the size and complexity of the federal bureaucracy • A battery of post-Nixon controls on executive power, including transparency rules and "watchdog bureaucracies“ • CBO • More willingness to and protection of “whistle blowers” • Changes in technologies/media that amplify the effect of official dissent, and increase the capacity of opponents to mobilize against executive action • Declining public trust in federal authority • Declining executive discretion over the use of federal funds, which are increasingly committed to mandatory programs • More than half the budget

6. How Powerful is the President? • Both the president and Congress are more constrained today. • Reasons for constraint: • Complexity of issues • Scrutiny of the media • Greater number and power of interest groups • Presidential responses to constraints include: • Acting early in the first term (honeymoon period) • Establishing a few top priorities • Giving power to the WH staff and supervising them carefully.

7. Rule of Thumb for dealing with Political Problems… • Move it or lose it • Get things done early in your term before your influence erodes • Avoid details • Better to have 3 or 4 top priorities and forget the rest • Cabinets don’t’ get much accomplished, people do.

8. Dwight Eisenhower • Orderly, military style • Delegated authority to trained specialists

9. John Kennedy • Bold, articulate, amusing leader • Improviser who bypassed traditional lines of authority

10. Lyndon Johnson • Master legislative strategist • Tended to micromanage

11. Richard Nixon • Expertise in foreign policy • Disliked personal confrontation • Tried to centralize power in the White House

12. Gerald Ford • Discussion-oriented and genial • Decision structures not always coherent or utilized

13. Jimmy Carter • Washington outsider • Tried to micromanage

14. Ronald Reagan • Set policy priorities then gave staff wide latitude • Leader of public opinion

15. George H.W. Bush • Hands-on manager • Considerable Washington experience

16. Bill Clinton • Good communicator • Pursued liberal/centrist policies

17. George W. Bush • Tightly ran White House • Agenda became dominated by foreign affairs post-9/11