Firstly, I will look at the Constitutional powers given to the President. The Founding Fathers created the constitution in an attempt to prevent a tyrannical rule, like the British. The Constitution therefore would ensure that no one particular Government Branch could become too powerful, checks and balances were created, to prevent each branch from becoming over powerful. We can see that although the President has the power to initiate bills, and has strong influence and power in the legislative process; the President still has to have approval from Congress. In the Presidents State of the Union, the President can lay out his policy proposals and set his agenda for the next year, but still, the President can only initiate these, he needs the support of Congress if he wishes to pass these bills. We have seen Barack Obama have trouble recently with his healthcare bill for this reason. Ultimately, Constitutional powers could be said to simply set up the President for failure, for this reason.
We can see that Congress has the ‘Power of The Purse’, and that the President can only initiate bills, he cannot pass them, he needs support of Congress as I mentioned previously. The Founding Fathers made the legislative process deliberately a long and laborious one to ensure that maximum attention to detail was taken in amending and ultimately passing a bill. We have seen the length of time a bill can take with Obama’s healthcare bill. The President can be seen to only have the power to persuade Congress, and can only have direct influence in times of crisis. For example the stimulus package introduced by Barack Obama was to help boost the economy. This is because in times of crisis, the people look to a ‘figure head’ the President for guidance in these times of crisis. For example, after a rough first few months of George Bush’s Presidency, after the events of 9/11, we saw George Bush’s approval ratings skyrocket to 92%. Congressmen ultimately are only interested in their Constituents, in a bid to gain re election.
In the area of foreign policy, we can see that the President is able to get around the need for Congress to approve of bills with the use of executive agreements. Executive agreements are agreements made by the President with foreign governments without the need of Senate ratification. The President is also the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. We can see that the President has used his power before whilst bypassing Congress once again. We saw this with the Vietnam War, in which Lyndon Johnson entered United States armed forces into Vietnam without Congress officially declaring war. This was the same with the ‘war on terror’, as war was never officially declared on Iraq through Congress, but President Bush entered troops into the country regardless.
A divided Government is when the majority party in the Different sections of Congress are different to that of the party of the President. When the Government is divided, it can be said that Congress is more assertive and also critical of the actions of the President. We have seen the ‘War Powers act’ be criticised over its constitutionality. The Pendulum effect describes how power swings between the President and Congress. For example, post Nixon presidency, and the Watergate scandal, the power of the President was restrained.
We can also look towards the future, and see how Obama might use his powers, and the power of persuasion. Obama could be said to be a President that relies on his power of persuasion. Obama is a President that relied heavily upon his charisma in his Presidential campaign. Despite Obama’s undivided Government, his power is considerable restrained, if Obama wishes to succeed in passing his domestic policy proposals, he is going to need to rely on his power of persuasion. We can see that Barack Obama has been having trouble passing bills even with the undivided nature of the U.S Government. Therefore, Obama will need to rely on the power of persuasion to pass his proposals.
In Conclusion, it is where the President ultimately decides where to focus his attention is the ultimate determinant of their success, and also their reliance on the power of persuasion. It is under certain circumstances, as I have mentioned throughout this answer, which allow the President to go beyond his Constitutional powers, and stretch his powers to accommodate the circumstance, we have seen this with the Presidents manipulation of executive agreements etc. This Is how I described earlier as an imperilled Presidency.
