Political Science, Ginsberg Chapter 13 Study Guide
Announcements made by the president when signing bills into law, often presenting the president's interpretation of the law. (page 545)
Signing Statements
Some presidents have attached __________ to bills they are approving; these attachments may include instructions for enforcement and the president's interpretation of the legislation.
Signing Statements
The Cabinet is a collective body.
False
Generally, presidents have expanded their power in three ways: party, popular mobilization, and administration.
True
The president's domestic military power includes the power to send federal troops into a state or city
if the president believes sending troops necessary to respond to an emergency or enforce a judicial order.
According to the authors, the decline in popular participation in government and voting has
increased the power of the president.
By the end of his second term in office, President George W. Bush had issued about ________ executive orders.
300
A normally closed political party business meeting of citizens or law makers to select candidates, elect officers, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters. (page 518)
Caucus (political)
The powers of the presidency are outlined in ____________ of the U.S. Constitution.
Article II
The textbook authors argue that, today, every president is strong. What do the authors mean by this?
Modern presidents have more institutional resources than presidents before them.
The _____ is the designation for the heads of all the major federal government departments, but it is not a collective body. It meets but makes no decisions as a group.
Cabinet
The secretaries, or chief administrators, of the major departments of the federal government. Cabinet secretaries are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. (page 532)
Cabinet
The role of the president as commander of the national military and the state National Guard units. (when called into service). (page 520)
Commander in Chief
Which branch of government has the constitutional power to declare war?
Congress
According to the textbook, one reason that Congress has been unable to check the growth of presidential power is that
Congress has a significant collective-action problem.
Article II, Section 2, power by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate to make Treaties. Article II, Section 3, provides the power to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.
Diplomatic Expressed Powers
Constitutional powers that are assigned to one governmental agency but that are exercised by another agency with the express permission of the first. (page 519)
Delegated Powers
Which first spouse did have considerable policy influence while her husband was in office?
Eleanor Roosevelt
An agreement, made between the president and another country, that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate's "advice and consent." (page 525)
Executive Agreement
The permanent agencies that perform defined management tasks for the president. Created in 1939, the EOP includes the OMB, the CEA, the NSC, and other agencies. (page 534)
Executive Office of the President (EOP)
A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the effect and formal status of legislation. (page 529)
Executive Order
The claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without the consent of the president. (page 525)
Executive Privilege
Specific powers granted by the Constitution to Congress (Article I, Section 8) and to the president (Article II). (page 519)
Expressed Powers
Presidents increasingly have preferred the Cabinet to the White House staff as a tool for managing the gigantic executive branch.
False
The president as commander in chief can declare war. True/False
False
During periods of divided government, the president's party is in the majority in Congress.
False (minority)
The first president to effectively use public appeals such as "fireside chats" and speaking tours was
Franklin Roosevelt.
Powers claimed by a president that are not expressed in the Constitution but are inferred from it. (page 519)
Inherent Powers
Article II, Section 2, also provides the power to grant Reprieves and pardons for Offences against the US, except in Cases of Impeachment.
Judicial Expressed Powers
An informal group of advisers to whom the president turns for counsel and guidance. Members of the official Cabinet may or may not also be members of the Kitchen Cabinet. (page 534)
Kitchen Cabinet
The president's inherent power to bring a legislative agenda before Congress. (page 527)
Legislative Initiative
Article II, Section 2 provides for the power as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called in to the actual Service of the United States.
Military Expressed Powers
he ____________ was established by law in 1947 and is composed of the president; the vice president; the secretaries of state, defense, and the treasury; the attorney general; and other officials invited by the president.
National Security Council
A presidential foreign policy advisory council composed of the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and other officials invited by the president. (page 534)
National Security Council (NSC)
The most important and largest agency in the Executive Office of the President is the
Office of Management and Budget.
A presidential veto that is automatically triggered if the president does not act on a given piece of legislation passed during the final 10 days of a legislative session. (page 526)
Pocket Veto
Who makes up the National Security Council (NSC)?
The president, the vice president, the secretaries of state, defense, and the treasury, the attorney general, and other officials invited by the president.
"Going public" as a source of presidential power has been especially significant in the past fifty years.
True
A major part of the institutional presidency is the Executive Office of the President, which is larger than the White House staff, and it comprises the president's permanent management agencies. The Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers both fall under this category.
True
Although all presidents rely on the members and leaders of their own party to implement their legislative agendas, the president does not control his own party; party members have considerable autonomy. During periods of divided government, the president's party is in the minority in Congress.
True
Another component of the president's power as chief executive is executive privilege—the claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without presidential consent.
True
As the institutional presidency has grown in size and complexity, most presidents of the past twenty-five years have sought to use their vice presidents as a management resource after the election.
True
Collectively, the thousands of officials and staffers who work for, assist, or advise the chief executive could be said to make up the institutional presidency and to give the president a capacity for action that no single individual could duplicate
True
Congress has voluntarily delegated a great deal of its own legislative authority to the executive branch.
True
Contemporary presidents have increased the administrative capabilities and power of their office by enhancing the reach and power of the Executive Office of the President, increasing White House control over the federal bureaucracy, and expanding the role of executive orders and other instruments of direct presidential governance.
True
First ladies have traditionally assisted presidents in meeting their responsibilities as head of state, though some first ladies have been more involved in policy aspects of the presidency.
True
Popular support for the president can be fickle and tends to decline over the course of a president's administration.
True
Presidents are selected in indirect elections through the electoral college. True/False
True
Presidents increasingly have preferred the White House staff to the Cabinet as a tool for managing the gigantic executive branch.
True
Since the New Deal, the powers of Congress have waned, whereas those of the presidency have expanded dramatically. Congress has surrendered more and more power to the president.
True
Some presidents have relied heavily on the National Security Council (NSC), made up of the president, the vice president, the secretaries of state, defense, and the treasury, the attorney general, and other officials invited by the president.
True
The Cabinet is the designation for the heads of all the major federal government departments, but it is not a collective body. It meets but makes no decisions as a group.
True
The White House staff, which is composed primarily of analysts and advisers, has grown from an informal group of fewer than a dozen people to a new presidential bureaucracy.
True
The decline of voting and other forms of popular involvement in American political life reduces congressional influence and Congress's ability to check the power of the presidency. Presidents have increasingly asserted the right to govern unilaterally and now appear able to overcome most institutional and political constraints.
True
The development of presidential government as we know it today did not mature until FDR and his "New Deal" of the 1930s. Since then, every president has been strong whether he was committed to the strong presidency or not. True/False
True
The framers thought a unitary executive would be energetic and thus better able to protect the nation's interests. True/False
True
The position of commander in chief makes the president the highest military authority in the United States, with control of the entire military establishment. Though the president is commander in chief, only Congress can declare war. However, presidents have gone a long way in capturing this power for themselves. In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution as a response to presidential unilateralism, but it has been generally ignored by presidents. True/False
True
The power to receive representatives of foreign countries allows the president almost unconditional authority to determine whether a new ruling group can indeed commit its country to treaties and other agreements.
True
The presidency was strengthened by the introduction of the national convention system of nominating presidential candidates. True/False
True
The president can issue executive orders, which are normal tools of management: rules-setting procedures, etiquette, chains of command, functional responsibilities, and others. But evolving out of this normal management practice is a recognized presidential power to promulgate rules that have the effect and the formal status of legislation.
True
The president does not control his own party.
True
The president is commander in chief. True/False
True
The president's legislative power consists of the constitutional requirement to deliver a State of the Union address and the president's constitutional power to veto any acts of Congress.
True
The president, although technically not able to introduce legislation in Congress, nonetheless has a leading role in lawmaking. Congress has come to expect the president to propose the government's budget, and the nation has come to expect presidential initiatives to deal with major problems.
True
The presidential power to grant reprieves, pardons, and amnesties allows the president to choose freedom or confinement, and even life or death for all individuals who have violated, or are suspected of having violated, federal laws, including people who directly threaten the security of the United States.
True
Though not explicitly, the constitution also provides the president with the power of legislative initiative, which implies the ability to formulate proposals for important policies.
True
The president's constitutional power to turn down acts of Congress. A presidential veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress. (page 526)
Veto
A resolution of Congress that the president can send troops into action abroad only by authorization of Congress, or if American troops are already under attack or serious threat. (page 521)
War Powers Resolution
In 1973, Congress passed the _____ as a response to presidential unilateralism, but it has been generally ignored by presidents.
War Powers Resolution
Analysts and advisers to the president, each of whom is often given the title "special assistant." (page 534)
White House staff
When Congress passes sweeping legislation, it often delegates significant power to the executive branch, which gives the president
a great deal of discretion in the way the law is implemented.
If a president claims that his or her election victory amounts to an order from the American people to enact new environmental policy, he or she is claiming
a mandate.
Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Instead of treating that agreement like a treaty, Clinton submitted it for a simple majority vote of Congress. What President Clinton did was
an executive-congressional agreement.
Presidential high-level political appointments are
an institutional resource of presidential power.
The White House staff is composed mainly of
analysts and advisers.
In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which
attempted to limit the president's use of troops in military action without congressional approval.
Which of the following is not one of the powers of the president specifically listed in the Constitution?
carrying out the laws of the United States
The practice of allowing the party's congressional delegates to nominate presidential candidates is known as the
caucus.
Historically, first spouses have served what role?
ceremonial functions
Generally speaking, popular support for a president
declines over time.
Powers given to the president by Congress are called:
delegated powers
The presidential power to make rules and procedures for the executive branch, which have the effect and formal status of legislation, is called
executive order.
Presidents have used ____________ to withhold information on executive branch deliberations from other branches of government.
executive privilege
The claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without presidential consent is:
executive privilege
President George W. Bush refused to turn over to Congress records of Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force meetings. He did so on the basis of
executive privilege.
The Cabinet, consisting of the heads of all major federal government departments
has no constitutional status.
In times of crises, presidents have issued executive orders without consulting Congress on the basis of
inherent powers.
The 2002 congressional resolution on the use of force against Iraq is notable because
it gave the president complete discretion to determine whether, when, and how to attack.
The national convention is important to the power of the presidency because
it gives the presidency a popular base that eventually supports increased presidential power.
If a president wished to make foreign policy without having to get the two-thirds vote in the Senate needed to ratify a treaty, he or she most likely would
make an executive agreement with the head of a foreign nation.
The president's expressed powers fall into five categories. Name all five. These are the source of some of the most important powers on which the president can draw.
military, judicial, diplomatic, executive, and legislative
The president's executive power consists:
of the ability to appoint, remove, and supervise all executive officers, and appoint all federal judges (with Senate approval).
Generally, presidents have expanded their power in three ways:
party, popular mobilization, and administration.
A ____________ veto can occur when the president is presented with a bill during the last ten days of a legislative session and ____________ be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.
pocket; cannot
The Constitution delegates to the _____, as commander in chief, the obligation to protect every state against invasion and domestic violence.
president
The public reaction to presidential actions in foreign policy and international crises is usually
supportive for a short time.
Which amendment provides for the vice president to assume the presidency in the event of the chief executive's death or incapacity and sets forth the procedures that would be followed?
the Twenty-fifth Amendment
According to the U.S. Constitution, the president is selected by
the electoral college.
What did the framers mean to accomplish by the indirect election of the president?
to make the president responsible to state and national legislatures
As a tool for achieving political goals, presidents have found party members to be
unreliable.
