Use of the veto - Research Paper Example

Giving the president the veto power helps him to defend himself, as well as his office by preserving his own independence and importance, so that he can be relied on to exercise this power. However, Spitzer (12) argues that the veto power that was introduced into the presidency through the United States constitution, is limited compared to that of the British monarch’s veto that was used as reference by the founders. Unlike the king, of Great Britain who has an absolute veto, the president of the United States has limited veto that can be overridden by a two-thirds vote, in both the house and the senate.

Reason for doing this was that the framers of the U. S. constitution believed a limited veto would be more efficient than an absolute one because it would be put into active use; thus, promote political development. Gilmour (198) evaluates both the president and presidency approaches to give centered explanations of the presidential activities in relation to their power to use the veto. He uses individual bill data passed by Congress to determine the extent to which institutional factors account for vetoes and how variation accounts for an individual president’s veto behaviour (Gilmour, 198).

As stated by Gilmour (199), the presidential vetoes mainly occur when the congress passes objectionable bills, which bring the president under control of the congress. However, despite being controlled by the congress, most presidents have different veto behaviour with some being more prone to using veto than others. For this reason, Gilmour (200) claims that the president’s veto decision is highly influenced by external factors although individual choices and strategies of presidents also play a significant influence.

Gilmour (200) argues that contemporary research on the president has focused more on the presidency-centered approach than the president-centered approach. The presidency-centered approach states that the president is a clerk and that