The Executive Branch

7 Key excerpts on "The Executive Branch"

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  eBook - ePub

  Politics: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself

  • Peter Joyce(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Teach Yourself

    (Publisher)

  10 The Executive Branch of government

  The Executive Branch of government exerts political control over a nation’s political affairs and is responsible for implementing laws. It is headed by the country’s most senior politician who serves as the nation’s chief executive. In this chapter we will consider the functions that are performed by The Executive Branch of government, the specific role that is carried out by chief executives, and the key features of presidential and cabinet government.

  The role of The Executive Branch of government

  Key idea (1)

  The Executive Branch of government consists of politicians and permanent officials who are responsible for implementing decisions relating to the conduct of a nation’s internal and external political affairs.

  The work of The Executive Branch of government is performed by two distinct sets of people: politicians, and paid, permanent officials. We will consider the workings of the latter, termed ‘bureaucracy’, in Chapter 13 and the discussion in this chapter will concentrate on the role performed by politicians who give leadership to The Executive Branch of government and who are usually referred to as ‘the government’. For example, in the UK, the government consists of the prime minister, cabinet, and junior ministers. In America it is composed of the president and the cabinet.

  Parliamentary and presidential political structures

  Key idea (2)

  A basic division exists within liberal democracies between parliamentary and presidential forms of government. Within liberal democracies, governments tend to be either parliamentary or presidential.

  In a parliamentary system of government, The Executive Branch of government is drawn from the legislature and is also collectively accountable to this body for its actions. The office of head of state is separate from the chief executive, the latter being the leader of the largest political party (or coalition of parties) commanding support in the legislature who is called upon by the head of state to form a government. The tenure of chief executives in office is dependent on retaining the legislature’s support, and chief executives typically possess the ability to recommend the dissolution of the legislature to the head of state, which triggers a general election. Countries which have this form of government include the UK and Germany.

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  Australian Politics in the Twenty-First Century

  Old Institutions, New Challenges

  • Stewart Jackson, Joff Lelliott, Shannon Brincat, Josephine Bourne, Nick Economou(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  This hints at an important point: the executive is not a homogeneous monolith with a single view of the world. It is made up of numerous agencies and individuals with sometimes competing ideas and interests. The executive is a site of multiple internal political conflicts and tensions. Before considering this, however, it is important to understand the roles of the executive. 84 AUSTRALIAN POLITICS IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY E X E C U T I V E P O W E R A N D I T S F U N C T I O N S Executive power can be defined, in narrow formal terms, as the capacity to execute or implement law and policy (Heywood 2007, 358). In reality, the powers of modern executives extend far beyond what this formal definition suggests. Political executives do not just execute or give effect to laws passed in the legislature, they also initiate changes to the law, develop policy, craft communication strategies, navigate national crises, conduct diplomacy with other states, make decisions about war and peace, and much else besides. If governance is about ‘steering the ship of state’, executive power is about who, or what, controls the rudder of that ship. K E Y F U N C T I O N S The key function of the political executive is, as we have already seen, leadership. It stands at the summit of state power, and shapes the political, social and economic direction of a given country. It does so by executing law and policy, as its name implies, but also by initiating and refining law and policy, and navigating the many challenges that a country and its citizens face over a government’s term in office. The political executive functions as a leader for the government of the day and also for the machinery of state more broadly conceived. Beyond this general leadership function, the political executive fulfils a number of more specific functions.

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  The Executive Branch of the Federal Government

  Purpose, Process, and People

  • Britannica Educational Publishing, Brian Duignan(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Britannica Educational Publishing

    (Publisher)

  An important feature of constitutional government is that the functions assigned to the different branches ensure that political power is shared among them. In the U.S. system, for example, the different branches share some of the same powers insofar as each branch is able to prevent certain actions by the others—e.g., the president (the chief executive) may veto, or reject, legislation passed by Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government; the Senate (one of the two chambers of Congress, the other being the House of Representatives) may reject treaties and certain appointments made by the president; and the courts may invalidate laws passed by Congress or certain acts by the president or by executive agencies. In parliamentary forms of government such as that of the United Kingdom, power is shared through an even greater integration of the functions and even the personnel of the executive and the legislature. In the nonconstitutional systems of totalitarian or dictatorial countries, in contrast, although there may be separate institutions such as legislatures, executives, and judiciaries, power is not shared but rather concentrated in a single institution. Because this body is not subject to the checks of shared power, the exercise of political power is uncontrolled or absolute.

  THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVE

  Political executives are government officials who participate in the formulation and direction of government policy. They include not only heads of state and government leaders—presidents, prime ministers, premiers, chancellors, and other chief executives—but also many secondary figures, such as cabinet members and ministers, councillors, and agency heads. In the United States and other large industrialized countries there are several thousand political executives, including the president, dozens of political appointees in the cabinet departments, in the agencies, in the commissions, and in the White House staff, and hundreds of senior civil servants.

  The crucial element in the organization of a national executive is the role assigned to the chief executive. In presidential systems, such as in the United States, the president is both the political head of the government and also the ceremonial head of state. In parliamentary systems, such as that of the United Kingdom, the prime minister is the national political leader, but another figure, a monarch or elected president, serves as the head of state. In mixed presidential–parliamentary systems, such as that established in France under the Fifth Republic’s constitution of 1958, the president serves as head of state but also wields important political powers, including the appointment of a prime minister and cabinet to serve as the government.

  The manner in which the chief executive is elected or selected is often decisive in shaping his role in the political system. Thus, although he receives his seals of office from the monarch, the effective election of a British prime minister usually occurs in a private conclave of the leading members of his party in Parliament. Elected to Parliament from only one of nearly 650 constituencies, he is tied to the fortunes of the legislative majority that he leads. In contrast, the American president is elected by a nationwide electorate, and, although he leads his party’s ticket, his fortunes are independent of his party. Even when the opposition party controls the Congress, his fixed term and his independent base of power allow him considerable freedom to manoeuvre. These contrasts explain many of the differences in the roles of the two chief executives. The British prime minister invariably has served for many years in Parliament and has developed skills in debate and in political negotiation. His major political tasks are the designation of the other members of the cabinet, the direction of parliamentary strategy, and the retention of the loyalty of a substantial majority of his legislative party. The presidential chief executive, on the other hand, often lacks prior legislative and even national-governmental experience, and his main concern is with the cultivation of a majority in the electorate through the leadership of public opinion. Of course, since the president must have a legislative program and often cannot depend on the support of a congressional majority, he may also need the skills of a legislative strategist and negotiator.

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  Executive Politics in Times of Crisis

  • M. Lodge, K. Wegrich, M. Lodge, K. Wegrich(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  This volume neither intends to provide for a new framework or theory of politics and bureaucracy/administration nor seeks to present a unified methodology for the study of particular phenomena. Rather, it projects executive politics as a commitment to the systematic (and social scientific) study of a field of related political phenomena. This introduc- tory chapter sets out the context that shapes the executive politics field. It locates executive politics within existing debates and explores key themes and questions of enquiry of both the executive politics agenda and the individual contributions in the volume. Executive politics – The word and the field Executive politics builds on a considerable intellectual legacy. We define executive politics as a field of study that is interested in the politics of political–administrative relations and the role of governmental organi- zation in the formulation and execution of political programmes. Such a wide-ranging definition includes the formal and informal rules and conventions that characterize the relationship between elected and non- elected public officials, aspects of institutional design (of organizations and rules), the operation or execution of these design choices and the study of the consequences of these choices in terms of outputs and outcomes (including issues of compliance). Executive politics is there- fore not just about The Executive Branch or about a state-centric focus. It takes into consideration diverse governing arrangements that shape policy (such as polycentric, network and regulatory space-influenced analysis). As a field of study, executive politics builds on two distinct research traditions. One tradition is the field of comparative government. This par- ticular field is interested in The Executive Branch, and in particular in the exercise of political leadership. Classic concerns have focused on the power of prime ministers, presidents and chancellors within particular institutional contexts.

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  The Constitution of the United States of America

  A Contextual Analysis

  • Mark Tushnet(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  3

  The Constitutional Politics of The Executive Branch

  The President as Party Leader – The President’s Role in Legislation – The Unitary Executive and the Modern Administrative State – The Unitary Executive in Foreign Affairs – Conclusion

  THE CONSTITUTION’S FRAMERS believed that Congress would be the predominant institution in the national government. The president, they believed, would serve primarily as an executive or manager of the programs Congress adopted. This expectation is captured in the fact that Congress is the subject of the Constitution’s first Article, consisting of 10 sections and about 2,250 words, the president the subject of Article II, with four sections and 1,000 words. Popular terminology reflects this expectation as well: Americans use the term ‘the government’ to mean Congress in the first instance and the combination of Congress and The Executive Branch secondarily, and use the term ‘the administration’ where people accustomed to parliamentary government would use the term ‘the government’.

  The president was not to be a mere figurehead, though. In the checks-and-balances system the Constitution created, the president was given a source of political authority—and power—different from the sources of authority and power for the houses of Congress. The president was also given some power to influence legislation directly, by recommending that Congress adopt laws and, more important, by vetoing laws Congress adopted. (Yet, indicating the assumption that Congress was the primary actor in the constitutional system, the president’s veto power was limited, not substantively but procedurally, by the ability of Congress to make its laws effective despite the president’s disapproval, if they could muster a two-thirds majority in both houses to override the veto.) These political and constitutional resources, the framers believed, would create a government that had enough power to accomplish the nation’s purposes but not so powerful as to engage in imprudent ventures or threaten the rights of the nation’s citizens.

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  American Government and Politics Today

  The Essentials, Enhanced

  • Barbara Bardes, Mack Shelley, Steffen Schmidt, , Barbara Bardes, Mack Shelley, Steffen Schmidt(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  The president’s roles include both formal and informal duties. The constitutional roles of the president include head of state, chief executive, commander in chief, 344 Part Four | Political Institutions 345 Chapter 12 | The President chief diplomat, and chief legislator. The president also acts as party chief. As head of state, the president is ceremonial leader of the government. As chief executive, the president is bound to enforce the acts of Congress, the judgments of the fed-eral courts, and treaties. The chief executive has the power of appointment and the power to grant reprieves and pardons. As commander in chief, the president is the ultimate deci-sion maker in military matters. As chief diplomat, the president recognizes foreign governments, negotiates treaties, signs agreements, and nominates and receives ambassadors. The role of chief legislator includes recommending legisla-tion to Congress, lobbying for the legislation, approving laws, and exercising the veto power. Presidents are also leaders of their political parties. Presidents rely on their personal popular-ity to help them fulfill these functions. Learning Outcome 3 In addition to constitutional and inherent powers, the president has statutory powers written into law by Congress. Presidents also have a variety of special powers not available to the other branches of the government. These include emergency powers and the power to issue executive orders, to invoke executive privilege, and to issue signing statements. Abuses of executive power are dealt with by Articles I and II of the Constitution, which authorize the House and Senate to impeach and remove the president, vice president, or other officers of the federal government for committing “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Learning Outcome 4 The president receives assistance from the cabinet and from the Executive Office of the President (includ-ing the White House Office).

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  Available until 4 Dec |Learn more

  American Government

  Constitutional Democracy Under Pressure

  • Cal Jillson(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 9

  The Executive Branch

  The President, the Bureaucracy, and Executive Power

  Focus Questions and Learning Goals

  Q1     How did the Founders limit the powers that they placed with the president?

  Q2     What forces account for the growth of executive power over the course of American political history?

  Q3     Why does the president have an easier time in shaping and implementing foreign policy than he does domestic policy?

  Q4     How does the president relate to The Executive Branch?

  Q5     Should we be concerned that White House staff members have replaced members of the cabinet as the president’s closest advisers?

  The Unitary Executive Theory of Presidential Authority

  Article II, section 1: “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

  While the constitutional origins of presidential authority are clear, centering on the clause above, the scope and limits of that authority are hotly contested. Scholars have long noted that while the powers explicitly enumerated in the Constitution’s Article II are few—commander in chief, pardon power, and, with the advice and consent of the Senate, broad appointment powers—the president has additional unenumerated powers.

  unitary executive theory Strong presidency theory holding that the president embodies executive authority and is the sole judge, particularly in wartime, of what is required to protect the nation and its people.

  Moreover, students of executive power all the way back to John Locke ­(1632–1704) have argued that kings and presidents may have to act outside the law or even in contravention of the law when great dangers threaten. The “inherent powers” of the executive, they argue, may require bold action, even action that would be illegal under normal circumstances, to confront dire threats. Officials of the George W. Bush administration argued for an even broader “unitary executive” theory of presidential authority. The unitary ­executive theory

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