Discuss ways in the modern political institutions (President, Congress and Supreme Court) are different from those described within the US Constitution.

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Aisling Smyth
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Discuss ways in the modern political institutions (President, Congress and Supreme Court) are different from those described within the US Constitution.  Choose two institutions.

Probably no country takes its Constitution more seriously than the United States of America. Although the original document was adopted more that two hundred years ago in 1787, Hodder-Williams quotes “it still provides the basic rules and establishes the basic institutional structures through which politics is practised” (Singh, 2003:53). This does appear to be the case, as there has been so little amended during the life of the Republic, twenty-seven amendments in total. However, if we accept that the first ten amendments were, in effect, part of the original document, there have only been seventeen amendments over two hundred years.

Presidency

American Presidents stand out as the most important and powerful political individuals in the United States of America, but they run within a framework of government that fragments power and subjects the president to a host of political forces with independent sources of power and the ability to obstruct and oppose the President if they choose to do so (Singh, 2003:167). However, it has only been from 1930 onwards that the presidency has been the most dominant branch of US government. Most of the real power of the modern day institution of the presidency comes from the powers laid out in the US Constitution and the laws made by Congress. In addition, the most beneficial factor in the President’s power, Lowi et al. state is “mass public opinion” (Lowi et al., 2006:124).

There are very little differences in the modern day institution of the presidency, and what is outlined in the Constitution. Section 1 of Article II of the US constitution which covers the executive branch has not changed over time. This section covers who is eligible to become President and Vice President. However, some processes have changed with modern society. The process of choosing the president and vice-president are different to what they would have been two hundred years ago. This process was modified by the 12th Amendment in 1804. When the US Constitution was first adopted the means in which the president and vice president were elected are different to what they are today. In the past the electors made a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each, but when the 12th Amendment was ratified this process changed to each elector naming in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President and the number of votes for each. Before the 12th Amendment, once the votes were counted and verified the highest five names would have been chosen by the Senate and the House of Representatives by ballot for president. Under the 12th Amendment if nobody has a majority, the person with highest numbers but not exceeding three shall be chosen by the House of Representatives by ballot for President. This part of the Constitution has remained the same, in that, after the choice of the President was decided, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. Furthermore if there should remain two or more who have equal votes then it would have been down to the Senate to choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.  However, no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

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It is outlined within Section One of the US Constitution that in the case of the removal of the President from his office, whether it be from his death, resignation or unable to return to his duties. In which case Congress may declare who shall then act as President, and for how long. However, if the president is temporarily unable to serve, the 25th Amendment, passed in 1967, sets out the replacement procedure- the Vice- President shall become President in the removal of the President from his office. Another important difference in the US presidency is that under the 22nd amendment in ...

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