...Presidential power has been an important topic of consideration and debate since the founding of the nation. Many presidents have tested the limits of the Constitutional provisions regarding the authorities of the executive branch, and in response, both the judicial and legislative branches have imposed the proper checks and balances via court rulings and newly legislated limitations. In modern American politics, many question the Constitutional legitimacy of various executive actions taken by the most recent presidents. However, the expansion of presidential power is certainly not unique to Presidents Bush or Obama. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, presidents have gradually increased their powers in response to wars, terrorism, and congressional gridlock, among other things. Furthermore, the broad definition of the executive branch’s duties found in the second article of the Constitution has led to contradicting interpretations about the proper applications of the executive powers. As...
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...Republican Sen. James Jeffords quit his party, the economy slipped into recession, and Bush's popularity began to fall. All this changed dramatically after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.A. With great skill and determination, Bush rallied the nation together, taking swift action against perceived terrorist threats, building an international coalition against terrorism, and taking the war to the perpetrators of the acts in Afghanistan. His job approval ratings soared to record levels, and he gained new respect from leaders and the public. The opening vignette thus illustrates how external events influence the presidential office. Especially during times of war and national crisis, the natural capacities of the institution are enhanced, as the public looks to the President during emergencies, and the person holding it has their power increased, more easily overcoming the constraints placed upon it by the Constitution and other structural and political factors. In wartime, presidents generally have their way with Congress on defense and foreign policy matters, and are tempted to govern by executive orders and agreements, with minimal...
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...Executive Power and the Constitution Michael Gray HIS 303: The American Constitution Professor Ginger Jarvis November 29, 2012 Executive Power and the Constitution “The Constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime president,” wrote Francis Biddle, Attorney General during World War II, in his memoirs (Smith, 1999, pg.24). Biddle’s comment was in reflection on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to relocate Japanese-Americans. An examination of American history reveals the Constitution does not appear to bother president during periods of national survival. In fact, Presidents seize crisis in domestic and foreign affairs as the opportunity to expand executive power. This paper provides a brief history on powers in the Constitution, examines use of executive power in domestic and foreign affairs, and concludes with an argument on how the issue should be interpreted. Framers of the Constitution believed separation of powers and a system of checks and balances would keep one branch of government from having more power then the others. Noah Feldman (2006) writes “nothing is more basic to the operation of a constitutional government than the way it allocates power” (Our Presidential Era, para.2). Constitutional Framers created three separate branches of government independent of each other. According to Cornell University Law School (2012), the first three articles of the “Constitution outlines the branches of the U.S. Government...
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...Examining discursive change, however, provides a different explanation. The pattern of expansion and contraction of our franchise is not economically driven, rather, it is an issue of collective identity. All people are born into an identity. Some identities, like the color of our skin, is not a choice. Others, like our beliefs or our friend groups, are choices we make. The right to vote gives individuals an identity that extends beyond themselves. Because discourse is a consequence of voting rights, voting rights in turn, respond to discourse. Examining the process of suffrage reveals a unique pattern. Using the elements found in Tulis, Robertson, and Lakoff, evidence and patterns in Presidential inaugural addresses suggest that discursive...
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...first written it was made to simply limit majority rule and give eqaul amount of power to the minority. The national goverment was originally built closely tied to citizens because of the House of Repesentatives. The House of Representatives was made to give citizens an equal say in the legislation of the United States. Unlike in the Senate, members of the House are elected by the people of the United States giving citizens a say in govenment affairs. One of the major aspects of the national goverment that is tied to citizens is the short term lenght and frequency of elections of people holding an office in the goverment. With the short term lenght and frequency of elections citizens are constantly contributing to what is going on in the nation by voting on who will be the best candidate for a certain office. A third reason the national goverment is closely tied to citizens is that the House of Representatives represents small member districts. This causes there to be close to equal say for everyone in a state to elect someone to represent thier ideas and views without on group of people having an uneqaul say. The United States Constitution was also made to limit the power of the majority . The first way this is done is though the separation of powers. The federal goverment is broken down into three main branches, the executive, legislative and judicial branch. Having these separation of powers allows for check and...
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...Andrew Jackson’s effect in the American politics Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, is one of the most important and significant presidents in the history of the United States. As a vice-president and president (1824 to 1832) he reshaped and redirected the course of American expansion and democracy. Jackson believed the president is the direct representative of the people. He was the man of action and shrewd politician. He knew how to manipulate men and could be affable or abusive or abusive as the occasion demanded.(nation of nations, 2005 ) Andrew Jackson came to personify the new democratic culture. Through his forceful leadership he significantly expanded the powers of the presidency. Jackson threatened to use force against South Carolina when it tried to nullify the federal tariff using john c. Calhoun’s theory of nullification that is that a state convention could nullify a federal law. He vetoed a bill to recharter the second bank of the United States and destroyed the bank by removing its federal deposits. He called for legislation to remove native peoples west to of the Mississippi voiding treaties found legitimate by the Supreme Court during the winter months of 1835-36 to ensure the greatest suffering to these peoples. One quarter of the tribal people died in transit to Oklahoma during this move. Jacksonian era went through the deep and rapid changes. The revolution in markets brought both economic expansion and periodic depressions as its citizens competed...
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...the Presidency, 2. Vote Choice in Presidential Elections, 3. The Presidency’s contribution to American Political Development (APD), 4. The Media and its effects on the Presidency, 5. Leadership styles / techniques of Presidents, 6. The different roles played by Presidents and 7. The relationship the Presidency has with the United States Congress and the Courts. Assignments and Grade Breakdown...
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...One of the most important issues concerning the presidency is how much power he should have in regard to what the Constitution allows. Several presidents have been criticized for surpassing what the Constitution allows, but none more than Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Andrew Jackson was hailed as a champion of the common man, however his questionable use of the veto and harsh policies led to severe criticism. Abraham Lincoln was the most divisive president in history and his stance on slavery changed the course of the United States’ history. Theodore Roosevelt was a man who believed in “speaking softly and carrying a big stick” and this stance let him get what he wanted, no matter the repercussions. Presidential...
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...Name Instructor Course Date History 1607 to 1877 Question One The royalist ideas led to strained relationships between the Spanish and Portuguese, and their respective American colonies as a result of rebellion, modernizing reforms and wars in Europe. Despite the liberalization of the trade monopoly, and the subsequent prosperity in most of these colonies, the local people did not benefit much. The Royalists insisted that all the money goes to them, mainly the Iberian monarchies, and the wealthy Spanish landowners. The Royalist ideas of anti-clerical regalism of the reformers from both Spain and Portugal had eroded the traditions of the Iberian Catholic monarchies, yet the ideas of Enlightenment and political alternatives to royal sovereignty could be found. The conservative anti-government outlook of the South was thus created as Latin America chose independence over living under monarchal rule. The same applied to the Scot-Irish people who always felt that they had left Ireland against their will, as they had no choice at all. They were mainly Protestant residents from Scotland, who had been settled on land seized from native Irish. They were also discriminated against by the Irish parliament because of their Presbyterian religion instead of following the Irish dominated Anglican Church. The Puritans were a group of religious reformists who had the aim of “purifying” the Anglican Church. This started in the 16th century with John Calvin and began leaving England in 1608...
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...influenced by the works of political theorists such as Montesquieu and Locke. The Founding Fathers favoured a government that prevented any individual or particular group becoming tyrannical. Furthermore, they strongly opposed the notion of excessive government power, seen as the potential threat to individual freedom, wanting to protect minorities as well as the population as a whole, from arbitrary or unjust rule. Consequently, the Founding Fathers outlined main provisions within the US constitution in order to avoid tyranny: the separation of powers, a federal structure of government and also providing citizens inalienable and entrenched rights through the implementation of the Bill of Rights. Arguably, these provisions as a result mostly ensure, as the Founding Fathers had hope to achieve, limited government, in so much as the size and scope of the federal government is limited to an extent in which it is necessary only for the common good of people. The separation of powers prevalent in the USA, whereby political power is distributed between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary branches of government, were adopted from the Founding Fathers by the principles of Montesquieu, who argued for a separation of powers into legislative, executive and judiciary branches in order to avoid tyranny. This framework of government implies not only the independence of government, therefore a separation of personnel (for example, both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama had to give up...
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...1. Introduction Social policies are created in order to compensate for the distortions arising from the process of capitalist development, which discriminates and creates an increasing gap between the rich and poor. The role of the state is to provide funds in order to ensure the welfare and to comply with the established constitutional right that is the guarantee to health, education, work and food for every individual. The state comes as a provider of these needs by creating social policies that ensure the survival for those living in extreme poverty. Based on this, income transfer programs were created, with the purpose of, in the short term, alleviate the problems arising from poverty and in the long term, investing in human capital, breaking the poverty cycle. A conditional cash transfer (CCT) is a type of income transfer program with the aim to reduce poverty by creating welfare programs conditional to the beneficiary’s actions. The government only transfers the money to people who meet certain conditions, which may include the enrolment of children in school, going to the doctor and receiving vaccinations, among others. Bolsa Familia is the largest conditional cash transfer in the world and it was implemented in Brazil (World Bank, 2005). and it consists in the financial aid to poor families as long as they keep their children often at school and vaccinated. The program aims to reduce poverty in the short and long term through conditional transfers of capital, which...
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...economic progress since the December 1989 U.S. military intervention that ousted the military regime of General Manuel Antonio Noriega from power. Since that time, the country has had five successive civilian governments, with the current government of President Ricardo Martinelli of the center-right Democratic Change (CD) party elected in May 2009 to a five-year term (Sullivan, 2012). Until the May 2009 Presidential election, the fight for political power in Panama had been essentially limited to the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) and the Partido Panameñista (PP) (Economics, 2012). Both of these parties are on the right of the political spectrum and made up of elites that move smoothly between business and politics depending on the opportunities at hand (Panama, 2012) Moscoso Government (1999-2004) In her second bid for the presidency, Arnulfista Party (PA) candidate Mireya Moscoso was victorious in the May 1999 elections. President Moscoso, a coffee plantation owner and Panama’s first female president, ran as a populist during the campaign, promising to end government corruption, slow the privatization of state enterprises, and reduce poverty. She also promised to ensure that politics and corruption did not interfere with the administration of the Canal. (Sullivan, 2012) Torrijos Government (2004-2009) In the May 2004 presidential race, Martín Torrijos of the PRD won a decisive victory with 47.5% of the vote. Torrijos spent many years in the United States and studied...
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...Limits of Power The president of the United States is often referred to as the most powerful man in the world – and with good reason. As a global hegemon, the decisions made by the U.S. executive are under a constant spotlight, and are often scrutinized. With so much power entrusted in one man, things are bound to go wrong. The president is simply too powerful, and the American people would be better suited with a less-dominant office. Since not all powers of the president are created equal, it is imperative to first distinguish between certain functions, in order to get a better sense of the broad, main areas a president is actually dealing with on a day-to-day basis. A more practical approach to identifying presidential powers is by breaking them up into five key duties: (1) head of state, (2) chief diplomat, (3) chief legislator, (4) chief executive, and (5) commander in chief. Although the five functions mentioned above do not cover everything a president is required to do, it is relatively easy to place both expressed and inherent powers within each subcategory, which allows for greater in-depth analysis. To begin, we’ll dive into one of the president’s more ceremonial powers – as the head of state. Head of State The president is required to act in a formal role as head of state. This role is often referred to as being ceremonial,...
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...In the years following the War of 1812, the first evidence emerged of sectionalism which would ultimately lead to the Civil War. Ironically, in the years preceding that time the nation grew significantly overall and was heralded by a sentiment of nationalism throughout the country. Economic and territorial growth both contributed to the postwar expansion. These were also factors in the resurgence of nationalism along with several others. This positive movement was not without some turbulence. Several factors led to the postwar expansion. Most of these factors were the consequences of lessons learned during the War of 1812. It effectively exposed the inadequacy of the current transportation and financial systems. Following the closing...
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...the Soviet Union. Although the two sides never fought against each other directly, the Cold War nonetheless erupted into violence at times in places like Vietnam, Korea, and Afghanistan. As the US grew more activist and interventionist in its foreign policy, the domestic government also grew in power and in its role in the people’s lives. Explain the origins of the Cold War and describe how different presidential administrations, from Truman to Nixon, handled Cold War affairs. Address the ways in which the presidents responded to the perceived threat of Soviet expansion, and explain how these approaches involved the US in conflicts in Vietnam and Korea. Consider, also, the ways in which the US intervened in the affairs of smaller nations such as Iran. Finally, explore how the Cold War changed America’s domestic society, focusing on issues such as the role of the government in people’s lives, the Red Scare, the return of domesticity, and growing distrust toward the federal government. Summarize your thoughts on the issues above by answering the following questions: a. Why did the Cold War start and how did it develop over its first three decades? b. What were its most important effects at home and abroad? When responding to these prompts, draw from the material in ONE of the following videos: a. The post-war years b. Superpowers collide c. 1930-1960 Also, draw from the material in THREE of the following documents: a. Electronic briefing book no. 28: The secret CIA history...
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