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‘Evaluate the view that the power of the President is limited to the
power to persuade’ (30 Marks)
The entire purpose of the checks and balances in the branches of the United States’ political system
is to limit the powers to which each branch can act. Moreover, presidents were initially meant to be
weak and only have the power to persuade, which can be seen constitutionally in theory as only
congress should be able to pass legislation, agree to treaties and declare war. However, it is clear to
see, especially in modern times, that presidents able to use ‘loopholes’ and methods such as
executive orders, executive agreements and presidential wars. These strategies can be use so that
their power exceeds the limits in which only persuasion can be used to push their agenda. Therefore,
in this essay we will be arguing that presidents do not only have the power to persuade.
A reason to which it could be said that presidents are limited to the power to persuade would be
that the constitution only grants congress the authority to pass legislation. This would suggest that
the President is limited to the power to persuade as the President would need to persuade congress
to push his proposed laws and offer to support senators’ suggestions in order to win their votes. An
example where a president was limited to the power to persuade would be from January 2022
where Joe Biden and the democrats had lost on the voting rights bill after being unable to gain a
super majority to overturn a filibuster with Democrats’ Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voting
against Biden. From the evidence Biden has been unable to persuade these two members of the
Democrat party and has therefore been unsuccessful with pushing his agenda meaning that surely it
can be said that a president is restricted to the power to persuade as this legislation can not be
taken further until Biden can persuade more members of the senate to vote in favour of the bill.
In contrast, presidents are not restricted to the power of persuasion due to the fact they are entitled
to use the executive order function which allows a president to order legislation to be enforced
without the vote of congress needed. An example would be during the covid-19 pandemic when
Biden had ordered for the mandatory wearing of facemasks in all federal buildings. Since neither
elected house had needed to be asked for their vote or support on the law would single-handedly
allude to the president not being restricted to the power to persuade as the president can make
these orders just by himself meaning that he has all the power in making these orders and cannot be
overpowered unless there is a vote against this order which could be vetoed. Moreover, the
president is not restricted to the power to persuade whatsoever in this area.
The constitution could also limit the President to the power of persuasion as it exclusively gives
congress the authority to declare war on another nation. This in theory does heavily restrict a
president’s power as it means that wars should only be declared on if it has support from congress
meaning that to have the power to be able to achieve such a large and extreme event a president
must be able to have the power to persuade congressman into agreeing to such extremes. This
restriction of power can be highlighted by the miniscule 11 declaration of wars by congress spanning
all the way back to the early 19th century which could be potentially due to those the presidents’
powers are so limited by this that it would be too hard to persuade congress into a war especially
trying to reach the majority needed in both houses. Here we can see that the President is limited to
the power to persuade.
Despite the previous paragraph stating that presidents are limited to the power to persuade via
being unable to declare wars without congress, that doesn’t mean that wars and conflicts the USA
have been involved with have gone through congress. President Johnson’s war on Communism in
Vietnam highlights this unrestricted power as he was able to send troops to fight in Vietnam on a
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