POLS FINAL Flashcards
(8 cards)
Executive order
a rule or order issued by the president to an executive branch of the government and having the force of law.
Used by Presidents to make legislation and bypass Congress
Executive Orders
Can be overridden if the Senate does not pass funding for the order or passes
legislation, which conflicts with the order
a. President can still veto the legislation, but Senate can override the veto with a 2/3 vote
Treaties
Type of expressed power
President is the Chief Representative in relations with other nations – How?
* President leads in the making of Foreign Policy
* President takes the lead in Treaty Making, but Senate must approve treaties
with 2/3 vote. Presidents often bypass the Senate by reformulating treaties
into Executive Orders
Veto
The President can veto, or reject, bills passed by Congress, preventing them from becoming law
Three types of presidents
Imperial President:
-Assumes much power in the realm of foreign policy
-Can assume much power in the realm of domestic policy, but usually leaves much domestic power with
Congress
-When opportunity (war, depression, recession, etc) presents a President with the ability to assume great
power they rarely turn it down. Congress and others oppose that President at their peril as they don’t
want to be seen in a bad light.
-Example: FDR (1932-1945) became President during Great Depression and assumed great power in
domestic policy to end it. Created and pushed much legislation which commenced the National Recovery
Act and Social Security Administration among other things. Assumed great power in foreign policy
because of World War II. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor foreign policy power was largely assumed
by Congress.
-Ever since WWII the President has kept and assumed even more foreign policy power. For example in
war making and treaty approval. Presidents routinely send military forces into conflict without a Congressional declaration of war and the War Powers Act did not actually fix this problem.
-Presidents routinely ignore the Senate treaty approval process by placing treaties within Executive Orders
or Signing Statements.
Imperiled President:
-Example: Richard Nixon became an imperiled (troubled / in trouble) President when the Watergate
Scandal became public and it became obvious that he engaged in bribery, payoffs, domestic wiretapping
and spying, break-ins and robbery. The agencies who were supposed to be making sure this type of
behavior did not happen or at least make sure they did not engage in it were also compromised (FBI and
CIA).
Heroic President:
-Example: FDR was certainly seen by Americans as a hero for taking the Great Depression head on as well
the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany.
Presidential Cabinet & EOP
Sixteen Departments
2. All Department heads referred to as ‘Secretaries’ except the Attorney General
3. Example:
a. Department = Department of State
b. Head of Department = Secretary of State
4. Secretaries and Attorney General meet with the President regularly to attend to the
issues and business of the nation at ‘Cabinet Meetings
Cabinet Level Officers – Also serve the President
a. Officers are the same level as the Cabinet and attend Cabinet Meetings, but are
officially not members of the Cabinet
b. Officers are considered part of the White House Staff
Attorney General Homeland Security
Interior Health and Human
Services
Agriculture Commerce Labor
Housing and Urban
Development
Transportation Energy Education Veterans Affairs
Vice President
Constitutional Clauses of Concern
Constitutional Clauses of Concern → How Presidents claim vast war-making
powers
* Necessary and Proper Clause – Article I, Section 8, Clause 18
* Faithfully Executed Clause – Article II, Section 3
* Commander-in-Chief Clause – Article II, Clause
1. The power to make war is the greatest power
2. The greatest threats to individual liberty happen during war
3. The US has been in a constant state of war or war readiness since World
War II
i. Presidents treat the Commander-in-Chief Clause (C in C) as an
expressed power – without a Congressional need to call the President
into service. According to the C in C Clause, Congress must call the
President into service. However, Congress allows the expansion of
Presidential power. What this means is that WE allow the expansion
of Presidential power.
Congress President Military
a. Presidents invoke the Faithfully Executed Clause in order to claim the Faithfull
Execution of the C in C Clause
b. Presidents invoke the Necessary and Proper Clause in order to carry out the
Faithfully Executed Clause
Rationalization
Bureaucratic Rationalization:
a. Thinking clearly and neutrally (no emotion)
b. Weighing the costs and benefits of decisions
c. Goal oriented
d. Objective and un-affected by politics and religion
* Essentially, bureaucracy is,
o Not charismatic
o Not politically partisan (divided)
o Not emotionally charged
o Not religiously directed
o Not irrational, it is not Congress!!!
o Bureaucracy should not operate according to the whims of the masses.
This could be dangerous
* The Problem with Bureaucratic Rationalization
o Weber began to fear that too much rationalization would lead to a
“polar night of icy darkness”
o Polar Night of Icy Darkness: Government becomes an unreligious,
unemotional, completely rational, rule based entity, which simply wouldn’t
be any fun and would deny the human race its. . . . . humanity
o Essentially, the human race becomes trapped in an “iron cage”
* Another way to look at the problem
o Analysis Paralysis: Too much rationalization can lead to too much
political correctness, which can lead to the over-analyzing of situations
that lead to decisions, which are never made
o Bureaucracy can be so steeped in rules, procedures and endless chains of
command that nothing ever gets done as paperwork is shuffled to the
next bureaucrat and so o
