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Summary Edexcel A Level Politics US executive branch revision notes
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Pre-chewed Politics revision notes on the US executive branch and the presidency for A Level Paper 3 comparative politics
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How is the executive branch structured?- US Executive (i.e. the president) can suggest new legislation & apply political pressure but
they’re not a member of Congress; members of the legislative branch introduce bills & control
the legislative timetable/agenda
- Executive is primarily responsible for the implementation/enforcement of laws made
by the legislature
The President:
- Head of government: political leader of the govt; runs the executive branch, executing/
enforcing the law (common with the UK PM)
- Head of state: figurehead who acts as a symbolic leader of their state & carries out
diplomatic/ceremonial duties (in the UK this is the monarch)
- Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces
- Chief legislator: suggests & signs bills/budgets & can veto legislation
- Chief diplomat: directs foreign policy, makes treaties, meets ambassadors
- Party leader: raises campaign funds, supports fellow party members
Executive Office of the President (ExOP):
= effectively the president’s own branch of govt, divided into a number of administrative units, incl.:
- White House Office (WHO): organises schedules, manages press relations, develops political
strategy
- Council of Economic Advisors (CEA): conducts research on the state of the US economy &
advises on economic policy
- Office of Management & Budget (OMB): oversees regulatory matters & prepares the
president’s annual budget proposal
- National Security Council (NSC): reports on threats & coordinates security & foreign policy
across different agencies
- Each of the units within the ExOP is divided into further sub-units e.g. the WHO includes:
- Domestic Policy Council: cabinet members/advisors meet to develop domestic policy
- National Economic Council: cabinet members/advisors meet to plan economic policy
- Office of Legislative Affairs: primary liaison between White House & Congress
- Office of Communications: manages the administration’s messaging to the media
The Cabinet:
- US Constitution doesn’t reference a cabinet but Article II states the president ‘may require the
Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments’ (meaning the
president can ask cabinet members for their views)
- George Washington established the convention of cabinet meetings: he met with the
Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Secretary of the Treasury, & Attorney General (who
didn’t have a dept at the time)
- Article II vests all executive power in a single person (the president) not the cabinet (so
cabinet has significantly less power than in the UK)
- Individual members of cabinet still have considerable influence on the federal govt & federal
bureaucracy (= unelected govt officials hired to carry out specific tasks)
Executive Departments:
- State, Treasury, War/Defence, Interior, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health &
Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education,
Veterans’ Affairs, Homeland Security
- Each dept is lead by a Secretary of State (member of the cabinet), & has a Deputy Secretary
of State & Assistant Secretaries; appointed by the president (often with Senate approval)
- Made up of different agencies (agencies, bureaus, commissions, offices)
, - E.g. Dept of Health of Human Services: Secretary of Health & Human Services
(responsible for ensuring the dept successfully carries out its health, welfare, &
income security programs); oversees 12 different agencies within the dept (e.g. Food
and Drug Administration: regulates food, tobacco, medicines, vaccines, etc.; Centre
for Disease Control & Prevention: responsible for preventing the spread of disease;
National Institute of Health: conducts biomedical & health-related research)
Independent agencies & corporations:
- Independent agencies = agencies that exist outside of the executive depts e.g. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA: sets environmental regulations e.g. water/air standards), Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA: gathers/analyses foreign intelligence for national security), National
Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA: runs the US space program & leads aeronautics
research)
- Independent regulatory commissions = regulate particular industries & groups by writing rules
& arbitrating disputes e.g. Federal Communications Commissions (regulates communication
by radio, TV, wire, satellite, & cable)
- Designed by Congress to be independent: usually led by a board of ~5-7 members
(rather than a single person), & serve staggered terms so they’re not chosen all at
once; often required to have a party balance e.g. no more than 3 members of the
FEC can belong to the same political party
- Government-owned corporations e.g. US Postal Service
Functions of the federal bureaucracy:
- Implementation: execute the laws passed by Congress
- Regulation: writes rules & regulations (secondary legislation) e.g. 1970 Clean Air Act left it to
the EPA to write rules setting specific pollution standards
- Adjudication: enforce rules in administrative hearings (much like a trial) e.g. EPA adjudicates
& enforces pollution rules (issues fines to those they find to have broken regulations)
, What are the president’s enumerated powers?
- Formal powers = official power clearly granted by the Constitution & Acts of Congress:
enumerated powers, delegated powers
- Informal powers = more controversial powers that can depend on political influence: inherent/
implied powers, persuasion powers
Enumerated powers (set out in Article II):
- Power is granted to a single person (the president) not a cabinet
- Commander-in-chief of the army/navy: outranks all other military officers & has the authority
to give military orders/make key strategic decisions (with advice from other military officers)
- Can ask Cabinet members for their views
- Can grant pardons & commute sentences for federal crimes
- Presidential pardon = formal forgiveness for an individual’s crimes that restores the
rights lost when convicted e.g. the right to vote, the right to bear arms etc.
- Commutation = reducing a prison sentence (partially/completely) but doesn’t restore
lost rights
- Can be used unilaterally (unlike most other key enumerated powers): doesn’t require
the cooperation of Congress & pardons can’t be challenged by the judiciary; the only
real check on the potential misuse of the pardon power is the ability of Congress to
impeach & remove a president from office; presidents tend to use this unilateral
power quite sparingly to prevent political consequences of controversial pardons (&
often wait until the end of their term)
- Can make treaties with foreign nations: have to be approved by a ⅔ Senate supermajority
- E.g. 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol: international agreement to
phase out the ‘production & consumption of substances that deplete the ozone layer’;
Kigali Amendment commits states to reduce their production of hydrofluorocarbons
by >80% in the next 30yrs; Senate approved it in 2022
- Can nominate judges, ambassadors, consuls, ministers, etc, with the advice & consent of the
Senate
- Congress can allow the president/heads of executive depts/the courts to appoint
interior officials without approval
- Can make ‘recess appointments’ (= appointment of a temporary senior official without the
Senate’s consent when it is in recess); included in the Constitution because the FFs expected
the Senate to be closed for lengthy periods & didn’t want this to delay the appointment of vital
govt roles but now the Senate is in session nearly all-year round & often uses ‘pro-forma’
sessions (in which no real business is conducted) to prevent recess appointments
- E.g. Republican House majority used pro-forma sessions to keep the house in
session on the 2011-2012 Christmas break to prevent President Obama making
recess appointments; Obama made 4 appointments anyway, arguing that because
the House wasn’t conducting any business, Congress wasn't properly in session (&
that his power to make recess appointments was being undermined); in NLRB v. Noel
Canning (2014) the SC ruled unanimously that this was unconstitutional because ‘for
the purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause, the Senate is in session when it
says it is’
- President is obligated to keep Congress informed & can recommend measures for Congress
to take up
- Usually done via the State of the Union Address: held late January/early February of
each year; President appears before both Houses of Congress & reports on both the
current condition of the country as well as legislation they’d like Congress to pass
over the coming year
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