The Presidential Powers - Essay Example

The Presidential Powers Presidential powers may not always be balanced. The presidential powers and duties are listed in the constitution which gives the presidents fewer powers than those granted to the Congress. However, because of the ambiguity in the constitution, the president is able to expand their powers beyond the ones that are specifically listed. Despite this, the presidents are supposed to work along with the Congress and their actions can be judged by the Supreme Court. Presidents can get the congressional support by building up public support for their policies. Thus, the presidential powers are limited and it can be argued that the constitutional powers given to the president are the weakest. The actual constitutional powers given to the president can be limited and different from those given to the Congress. It can not be said that the president is ‘too powerful’ or more powerful than the Congress. Under the constitution, the presidential powers are limited to institutional and political. The president serves as the chief executive which is the head of the executive branch according to the constitution. This implies the presidential powers as being the chief administrative officer within the division of labor in the executive branch. The president also serves as the Commander-In-chief of the armed forces but in limited powers and as the financial manager of the federal budget approver (Ginsberg 309). The president holds the responsibility to manage the National Budget but ultimately congress has to approve it. Furthermore, the president has the authority to sign the bills into laws and has the power to veto them, but again the congress has the powers to over-ride his veto. The congress must also approve the decisions made by the president to assign judges to the Supreme Court and other high positions like Foreign Ambassador. The president has a role on the law enforcement on the condition that he takes care of the law being executed fairly. But over the years, the congress has also been involved in the law enforcement duties and the presidential powers have turned out to be in rough proportion to the responsibilities and power of the national government. The formal powers of the president include many significant leadership roles that can be majorly divided into two authorities: domestic policy and foreign affairs. In the domestic arena, the president has the powers as the chief executive and the authority to oversee the execution and the implementation of the law. The president can also influence the legislative and judicial branches significantly. Thus, through these powers the president can form a long lasting influence on the nation’s domestic policies. Moreover, the constitution gives the congress and the president different responsibilities for the war. The president is allowed to wage wars as commander in chief whereas congress has the power to declare wars and fund them. The presidential powers under the constitution may be limited, but politically the president is certainly the most powerful. Beyond the president’s official role lies his role as the head of his political party. The president is regarded as the nation’s principle political leader and also as the leader of his political party. Thus, the skills and leadership of the president greatly influences the success of the political party. As the political leader, the president has to go through many duties including building coalitions between interest groups, managing patronage for the parties and other official duties like choosing the chairperson of the party’s national committee. However, despite the powers given to the presidents, there is no complete power given to them and they can not be regarded as the most powerful. The presidential powers still lack complete authority and are worked constructively together for the benefit of the nation. However, despite being having the ultimate power of being the president of the world’s only economic superpower, the president can be anything but being powerful at all times. Even though at many areas he may be very strong, but at the other hand he can be a weak leader for having shared authorities and responsibilities (Ginsberg 311). Although the formal powers of the presidents are mentioned in the constitution, the 20th century presidents have been able to use their institutional and political powers to overcome this. There have been growing powers of the presidents in the 20th century. It is believed that the constitution was written more than 200 years ago and at that time, the modern role of the president was not known. This illustrates that the people who wrote the constitution did not know about many of the things that are present in modern day presidential authorities and surroundings. These modern presidents thought that the president holds the authority to act in ways that are not mentioned in the constitution. There has been growing power of the presidents seen in the modern day politics, yet the question remains that is giving too many powers to the president a threat to democracy. The presidential authority has greatly expanded through the concept of inherent powers and through legislative actions. The president’s actions can still be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The opposition between the congress and the president grew and congress found it difficult to compel the president to change the policy (Ginsberg 314). In my opinion, the balance of power between the president and the congress which tended to be same some years back is now seen as imbalanced. The presidents hold power greater than that of the congress. In the 2002 war and in the recent years the opposition of the presidential authorities to the congress powers has been greatly seen in wars, and the ways the presidents have succeeded in gaining power over the congress suggests that the congress has lost the authorities they had under the constitution. The president will be the sole leader under the legislative actions. Hence, the presidential powers given to the presidents under the constitution are limited and allow them to work constructively with the congress, but the constitution has been regarded as traditional and the presidents are seen with growing power whilst having disputes with the congress. The modern presidents believe that it is their responsibility to participate in the decision making solely as being the ultimate leaders. Work Cited Ginsberg, T., Lowi, T., Weir, M. and Spitzer, R. (2010). We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. NY: W. W. 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