PRESIDENCY

Presidency

Presidency

Thesis statement

“What the presidency is at any given time depends on who is president”.



Introduction

The American democracy system has always been a unique system. In a parliamentary system, the prime minister's party does not have full control of the government. The seats are divided between all the parties, according the number of votes they earned. The winning party may have the majority, but usually not an overwhelming majority. The prime minister's powers are very limited, because he has to follow his party and the parliament. American Presidents have much more power than prime ministers. Modern Presidents have generally become a popular symbol and accumulated very broad executive power.

Analysis

The constitutional framers have many disagreements about the executive branch. Thomas Jefferson envisioned a de-centralized, weak and democratic executive branch. On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton envisioned a stronger, powerful and centralized executive branch, or a patriot king. The outcome was something in the middle, an executive branch that has moderate power. Before the 1900's, the Presidents almost never over-power Congress. Even a strong President like Andrew Jackson was almost impeached by the Congress. The house also had the power to determine the outcome of an election if no candidate has a majority (Kent, 1987). A strong legislative branch and weak executive branch led to an undermining of American democracy. For example, the Crisis of 1824, where Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams made secret deals to win the Presidency. Because Clay had strong influence in the house; he used his influence and the power of the house to secure John Quincy Adam's victory. John Quincy Adams repays Henry Clay with the position of secretary of state, "The new president rewarded the Speaker by naming him secretary of state, the traditional stepping-stone to the presidency, thus virtually anointing Clay as his successor" (Hetherington, 2006).

Appointing one's successors, secret political deals and key government positions as rewards are certainly not characteristics of a democratic state. If American Presidents follows this route, then Congress is always going to be a dominating factor in deciding who is to be President. All presidential candidates will have to beg for the support of Congressional leaders. The obvious solution to this problem is to weaken the legislative branch. After John Adam's uneasy presidency, Andrew Jackson was elected to office. Andrew Jackson was a strong President who did not listen to the Congress at all. This is just what the country needed, to weaken the Congress with a strong President. After Andrew Jackson's presidency, Congress tried to re-assert its powers over the executive branch. Presidents following Andrew Jackson are generally weak and indecisive. The slavery problem plagued the country during this time and Congress was too willing to compromise instead of taking actions until Abraham Lincoln became President. Abraham Lincoln became President at a time of great crisis. The Congress was no longer able to deal with the situation (George & Stephen, 1985).

The country demanded a strong executive to take actions against ...