Executive Branch
Terms
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- 12th Amendment
- Electoral College will elect both the President and VP in a single election
- How is president chosen
- electoral college
- how is governor chosen
- popular vote
- qualifications for governor
- citizen of the US, attained 35, been a resident of the commonwealth and a registered voter in the commonwealth for 5 years next preceding the election
- 22nd amendment
- sets a term limit for the US
- 25th amendment
- establishes procedures for filling vacancy in the office of the VP
- Three differences between presidents and prime ministers
- Presidents are outsiders; presidents choose cabinet members from outside Congress; presidents have no guaranteed majority in the legislature
- Divided government
- government in which one party controls the White House and a different party controls one or both houses of Congress
- Unified government
- same party controls White House and Congress
- Representative democracy
- people elect representatives to act on their behald
- direct democracy
- people legislate for themselves
- concerns of the founders
- president would use militia to overpower state gov'ts; could become a tool of the Senate
- First presidents
- appointed people of stature in the community; president was meant to be kept simple
- Jacksonian era
- vetoed 12 acts of Congress; believed in a strong and independent presidency
- Powers of the president
- commander in chief of the armed forces, commission officers of the armed forces, grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses, convene congress in special sessins, receive ambassadors, take care that the laws be faithfully executed, wield the executiv
- powers of president shared with senate
- make treaties, appoint ambassadors, judges, and high officials
- Pyramid structure
- used by Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton assistants report through a hierarchy to a chief of staff who then deals directly with the president; provides for an orderly flow of information and decisions but does so at the risk of isolating or
- Circular structure
- used by Carter, cabinet secretaries and assistants report directly to the president; has the virtue of giving the president a great deal of information but at the price of confusion and conflict among cabinet secretaries and assistants
- Ad hoc structure
- used for a while by Clinton, task forces, committees and informal groups of friends and advisers deal directly with the president; allows great flexibility, minimizes bureaucratic inertia, and generates ideas and information from disparate channels but ri
- Executive office of the president
- composed of agencies that report directly to the president; appointments must receive Senate confirmation
- Principal agencies of the executive office
- Office of Management and Budget; Central Intelligence Agency; Council of Economic Advisers; Office of Personnel Management; Office of the US Trade Representative
- Most important executive office and what does it do
- Office and Management and Budget; assembles the budget, develops reorganization plans, reviews legislative proposals of agencies
- Cabinet
- cheif executives of the executive branch departments
- Name cabinets
- State, treasury, defense, justice, interior, agriculture, commerce, labor, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation, energy, education, veterans affairs
- Power to persuade aimed at three audiences:
- Fellow politicians/leaders, party activists/officeholders outside Washington, public
- Veto message
- statement that the president sends to Congress accompanying the bill within ten days after the bill has been passed (with it, he sets forth his reasons and signature)
- Pocket veto
- if president does not sign the bill within ten days and Congress has adjourned, then the bill will not become law
- Budget Reform act
- requires president to notify Congress of funds he does not intend to spend; congress must agree in 45 days to delete them; requires president to notify congress of delays in spending
- role of VP
- Presides over Senate and votes in case of tie
- executive agencies
- outside the structure of the cabinet departments
- executive privelege
- claim by the president that consultations with advisers are confidential and need not be disclosed to the courts of Congress
- implied powers
- asserted by virtue of office
- lame duck
- politician whose power has been diminished because he or she is about to leave office as a result of electoral defeat or statutory limitation
- rescissions
- presidential recommendations to cut parts of appropriations bills