THE PRESIDENCY CONSTITUTION ON THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH • Article II deals with the presidency – At 1 ½ pages it is much shorter than Article I – Expansion of executive power • Many of the founders wanted a strong executive but knew that if they included one in the Constitution it probably wouldn’t pass since we had just split from a country with a strong executive • By saying little about the executive in the Constitution they said little about what the executive couldn’t do • This allowed presidents to expand the power of the office and today it’s much stronger than in 1789 ROLES OF PRESIDENT • There are two roles for executives – Head of state is the ceremonial role like the monarch plays in the United Kingdom – Head of government actually runs the government like the prime minister in the United Kingdom – Most western democracies have different offices to do each role • Either a monarch and prime minister or a president and prime minister • The U.S. President plays both roles DUTIES OF PRESIDENT • Chief Executive – In this role the president enforces laws – The Cabinet • Secretaries of departments make up the cabinet and assist the president in enforcing laws – Cabinet secretaries are appointed by president and confirmed by Senate DUTIES OF PRESIDENT • Chief Executive – The bureaucracy is all the people who work for the government enforcing policy • Congress passes laws and the bureaucracy enforces them • People who work in the bureaucracy are civil service employees who the president can’t fire • Therefore the president doesn’t have as much control over them as he would like • This means presidents sometimes can’t change policy as much as it might appear DUTIES OF PRESIDENT • Chief Executive – Models of Bureaucracy • The acquisitive model says that agencies get bigger a little at a time (incrementalism) so eventually get very big and have very big budgets – This adds to budget deficits and the national debt • The garbage can model says that when agencies make regulations it’s an inefficient trial and error process and policies may not work – Bad policies are just thrown away and new ones tried • The monopolistic model says that bureaucratic agencies are like monopolies and have the same problems as monopolies – Costs increase, customer service is poor DUTIES OF PRESIDENT • Chief Executive – Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce the number of regulations affecting people • One way is through a cost – benefit analysis where you calculate the financial cost of the regulation to business and society and the economic benefit to society and only establish the regulation if the benefit is more than the cost DUTIES OF PRESIDENT • Chief Executive – Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce the number of regulations affecting people • When President Reagan did this Democrats in Congress accused him of rigging the data so no regulation passed the analysis ...

1. THE PRESIDENCY
CONSTITUTION ON THE
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
• Article II deals with the presidency
– At 1 ½ pages it is much shorter than Article I
– Expansion of executive power
• Many of the founders wanted a strong executive
but knew that if they included one in the
Constitution it probably wouldn’t pass since we had
just split from a country with a strong executive
• By saying little about the executive in the
Constitution they said little about what the
executive couldn’t do
• This allowed presidents to expand the power of the
office and today it’s much stronger than in 1789
ROLES OF PRESIDENT
• There are two roles for executives
– Head of state is the ceremonial role like the
monarch plays in the United Kingdom
– Head of government actually runs the

2. government like the prime minister in the
United Kingdom
– Most western democracies have different
offices to do each role
• Either a monarch and prime minister or a president
and prime minister
• The U.S. President plays both roles
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
– In this role the president enforces laws
– The Cabinet
• Secretaries of departments make up the cabinet
and assist the president in enforcing laws
– Cabinet secretaries are appointed by president and
confirmed by Senate
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
– The bureaucracy is all the people who work
for the government enforcing policy
• Congress passes laws and the bureaucracy

3. enforces them
• People who work in the bureaucracy are civil
service employees who the president can’t fire
• Therefore the president doesn’t have as much
control over them as he would like
• This means presidents sometimes can’t change
policy as much as it might appear
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
– Models of Bureaucracy
• The acquisitive model says that agencies get
bigger a little at a time (incrementalism) so
eventually get very big and have very big budgets
– This adds to budget deficits and the national debt
• The garbage can model says that when agencies
make regulations it’s an inefficient trial and error
process and policies may not work
– Bad policies are just thrown away and new ones tried
• The monopolistic model says that bureaucratic
agencies are like monopolies and have the same
problems as monopolies
– Costs increase, customer service is poor

4. DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
– Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce
the number of regulations affecting people
• One way is through a cost – benefit analysis where
you calculate the financial cost of the regulation to
business and society and the economic benefit to
society and only establish the regulation if the
benefit is more than the cost
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
– Deregulation is when presidents try to reduce
the number of regulations affecting people
• When President Reagan did this Democrats in
Congress accused him of rigging the data so no
regulation passed the analysis
– The president uses the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) to calculate the numbers and Congress
didn’t trust the OMB’s numbers
– Therefore Congress created the Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) which came up with it’s own, possibly
rigged numbers

5. – We still have both offices
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Executive
• Iron triangles are agreements between an
executive branch agency, a congressional
committee and an interest group or business that
benefits all three but costs taxpayers money
• The business contributes to the committee
members’ campaigns so they get reelected then
the committee members grant government
contracts to the business that may not be
necessary
• The agency agrees that the contracts are
necessary in exchange for larger budgets
– They all gain but taxpayers lose
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Commander in Chief
– Congress declares war but we haven’t
declared war since 1941
– We’ve had many “wars” since because the
president can make war
• Korea 1950

6. • Vietnam 1964 or earlier
• Iraq 1990
• Afghanistan 2001
• Iraq 2003
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Commander in Chief
– The president can create conditions that
make a declaration of war more likely
• Mexican – American War
– In 1846 President Polk wanted to expand southern slave
territory but Mexico (which used to include most of the
Southwest) was in the way
– He couldn’t just attack Mexico unprovoked and steal half
of their country
– Instead he sent U.S. troops into a disputed border zone
that we said was the U.S. and Mexico said was theirs
– Of course Mexico attacked the troops
– We then declared war and took ½ of Mexico
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Commander in Chief
• Vietnam war

7. – President Johnson wanted to expand the war
– In the Gulf of Tonkin Incident he sent a U.S. ship into
North Vietnamese territorial waters
– The Vietnamese shot at the ship but did no real damage
– Later the U.S. ship thought they were under attack again
although they actually weren’t
– Johnson told the American people and Congress that the
ship had been attacked in international waters (a lie)
– Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which
wasn’t a declaration of war but did greatly expand the
our involvement in Veitnam
– We eventually lost the war
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Commander in Chief
• Vietnam war
• When Congress found out they were tricked into
passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution they passed
the War Powers Act in 1973
– This law says the president can only make war for 60
days without congressional approval
– After that Congress can terminate funding for the war
activities which gives them some control over war

8. powers
– The War Powers Act is probably a violation of separation
of powers but the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on it
– Presidents have wisely gained congressional approval
before making war in observance of the law and to show
the enemy that the country is united in the war effort
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Diplomat
– The president also plays the role of chief
diplomat
• This means the president is the head of foreign
policy
– The president is the main negotiator in cases like peace
treaties or international agreements (free trade
agreements or environmental agreements for example)
– Remember however that the Senate must ratify any
treaties that the president negotiates
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Legislator
– Presidents play a key role in law making
• They must sign bills for them to become law

9. • If they don’t sign bills two things can happen
• Usually the bill becomes law in 10 days
• However there is a special case is called a pocket
veto
– This is where the 2 year congressional session ends
within the 10 days and the bill dies when congress
adjourns
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Legislator
– Of course the president can veto bills
• But Congress can override the veto with a 2/3 vote
of both the House of Representatives and Senate
• Sometimes the president signs a bill but adds a
signing statement
– That’s a note that says they’re not going to enforce the
bill, however a future president can enforce the bill
• A line item veto is vetoing just a part of a bill
– The U.S. president doesn’t have this power but the
California governor does
– It allows the governor to line out wasteful spending that’s
only in the bill to help a legislator get reelected

10. DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Legislator
– The president also proposes bills
• Many bills are proposed during the State of the
Union address
– Going public is where the president tries to
gain public support for the bill which might
encourage Congress to pass it
• The bully pulpit refers to the fact that the media is
likely to cover presidential statements so it’s easier
for presidents to get their message out to the
public
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• Chief Legislator
– The power to persuade refers to presidents’
efforts to convince individual members of
Congress to vote for a bill they’ve proposed
• This depends on the president’s political skills and
how well they work with members of Congress
– The Johnson Treatment refers to President Lyndon
Johnson’s strategy of starting out nice and slowly
becoming more mean when trying to convince members
of Congress to vote for his bills

11. DUTIES OF PRESIDENT
• The president also plays the role of chief
of their political party
– They appoint the chair of their party
– They are an effective fundraiser for their party
and its candidates
– The president tries to boosts the morale of
members of their party when they lose badly
in elections like the Democrats did in 2010
and 2014
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
• Executive orders are where presidents
issue decrees almost like laws that don’t
pass Congress for example:
– Japanese-American “Relocation Centers”
– Wage and price freeze to try to reduce
inflation during the economic crisis of the
early 1970s
– Usually someone sues arguing that the
president has exceeded their power and the
Supreme Court decides if they did

12. PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
• Executive privilege is where presidents
claim something doesn’t apply to them
– The Supreme Court usually decides if it does
– Nixon said he didn’t have to give tape
recordings to Congress, the Court said he did
– Clinton said Paula Jones couldn’t sue him for
sexual harassment, the Court said she could
– Cheney said he didn’t have to reveal who met
with him to make energy policy, the court
agreed with him
PRESIDENT VS. CONGRESS
• Split ticket voting
– Where people vote for the candidate of one
party for president and the other party for
Congress
• This can lead to divided government where
different parties control the two branches
– Drawbacks are nothing gets done and we don’t know
who to blame if it doesn’t but a benefit is if something
does get done then it has input from both parties
• United government
– The opposite of divided government with the opposite

13. benefits and drawbacks
CALIFORNIA PLURAL
EXECUTIVE
• “Cabinet” members in California
(Secretary of State, Attorney General, etc.)
are elected by the people not chosen by
the governor
– Therefore those officials may not work with
the governor and may even be from the other
party
– This weakens the California governor
because they don’t get to choose their team
which would then help them like the president
THE PRESIDENCYCONSTITUTION ON THE EXECUTIVE
BRANCHROLES OF PRESIDENTDUTIES OF
PRESIDENTSlide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide
11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide
18Slide 19PRESIDENTIAL POWERSSlide 21PRESIDENT VS.
CONGRESSCALIFORNIA PLURAL EXECUTIVE