Presidential politics 149is placed the final responsibility for the external, and much of the internal,
affairs of the United States. But just how powerful is a president? What are
the tools that are available for the discharge of political functions of the of-
fice? What are the built-in limitations on presidential power? These are the
questions we shall look at in the present chapter.
Of course, it is true to say that the nature of the presidency at a particular
moment depends considerably upon the incumbent of the office – great men
make great presidents. But although the personality of the president may
make a considerable difference to the course of day-to-day policy-making,
there are very real institutional limitations on the president – things that
can be done and things that cannot, as well as things that cannot be escaped.
In certain circumstances a president may set the country on a new course,
achieving a new economic policy, setting off in a new direction in foreign af-
fairs, initiating great social changes. But all the time the president is subject
to very real constitutional and political limitations. In recent years in Britain
there has been much discussion of the extent to which the office of prime
minister has been moving more and more towards a presidential form, and
by implication the discussion is usually cast in terms of the extent to which
the British prime minister is becoming more like the American president,
and consequently becoming a more powerful and dominant political figure.
But the comparison between these two great offices is in fact by no means
as simple as this. The recognition of the increasing power of the prime min-
ister in relation to other members of the cabinet does seem to make the holder of
the office more like the American counterpart as head of the government,
but in relation to other parts of the political system the comparison is much
more complex. In order to assess presidential power we must look at the
presidency from every angle, regarding internal affairs and external, con-
sidering its relationship to the cabinet, to other advisers, to Congress, to
the party system, to pressure groups and to the courts. For the working of
the presidency fluctuates between two poles: on the one hand, an awesome
exercise of power, power that is personal and seemingly unchecked; on the
other hand, an impotent inability to gain acceptance for major policies which
the president considers essential to the well-being of the country, or even for
relatively minor aims which seem desirable. It is the ever-changing complex
of interrelationships between these two poles that constitutes presidential
politics, the ramifications of which we shall now explore.
The political functions of the president
The president has a number of constitutional powers which we shall look at
shortly, but the way in which they are exercised is largely dictated by the
political context. At the same time, the provisions of the Constitution do
constitute a very real framework for the exercise of presidential power, for
they provide the legal weapons which other political actors can use in their
struggle with the president.