Chapter 10: The Presidency

Chapter Review

Presidential Power Is Rooted in the Constitution

1. The president's expressed powers fall into five categories-military, judicial, diplomatic, executive, and legislative.
2. The position of commander in chief makes the president the highest military authority in the executive branch, with control of the entire military establishment.
3. The presidential power to grant reprieves, pardons, and amnesties allows the president to choose freedom or confinement, and even life or death for all individuals who have violated, or are suspected of having violated, federal laws, including people who directly threaten the security of the United States.
4. The power to receive representatives of foreign countries allows the president almost unconditional authority to determine whether a new ruling group can indeed commit its country to treaties and other agreements.
5. The president's role as head of government rests on a constitutional foundation consisting of three principal sources: executive power, domestic military authority, and legislative power.
6. The Constitution delegates to the president, as commander in chief, the obligation to protect every state against invasion and domestic violence.
7. The Constitution delegates to the president, as commander in chief, the obligation to protect every state against invasion and domestic violence.

Institutional Resources of Presidential Power Are Numerous

1. Presidents have at their disposal a variety of institutional resources-such as the power to fill high-level political positions-that directly affect a president's ability to govern.
2. Presidents increasingly have preferred the White House staff to the Cabinet as a tool for managing the gigantic executive branch.
3. The White House staff, which is composed primarily of analysts and advisers, has grown from an informal group of fewer than a dozen people to a new presidential bureaucracy.
4. The Executive Office of the President, often called the institutional presidency, is larger than the White House staff, and comprises the president's permanent management agencies.

The President Has Numerous Political Resources

1. The president also has political resources on which to draw in exercising the powers of office.
2. Presidents often use their electoral victories to increase their power by claiming the election was a mandate for a certain course of action.
3. Although its traditional influence is on the decline, the president's party is still significant as a means of achieving legislative success.
4. Interest groups and coalitions supportive of the president's agenda are also a dependable resource for presidential government.
5. Over the past half-century, the American executive branch has harnessed mass popularity successfully as a political resource.

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