176 Presidential politics
The Twenty-Second Amendment
The growth of presidential power in the twentieth century, and in particu-
lar in the period 1932–45, called forth a large volume of criticism and de-
mands that it should be curbed. There were two major lines of attack, one
unsuccessful (the Bricker Amendment) and the other a successful move – the
Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution. The length of the president’s
tenure of office is a matter of great importance for his power and influence.
An incumbent president is in a strong position (though not an impregnable
one) to gain re-nomination and re-election. As we have seen, the ability of a
president to secure agreement for the administration’s policies depends very
much upon a number of factors involving the use of the president’s position
as party leader and national leader, as well as the constitutional and statu-
tory powers of the office. If it is known that the end of the president’s period
of office is in sight, much of the president’s armoury falls away. Soon someone
else will be wielding these powers and dispensing patronage. It is true that
even late in a term of office the president’s position is still awesome enough
to confer considerable influence within the party. Witness the way in which
President Johnson was apparently able to affect the decisions on the party
programme at the Chicago Convention in 1968, but the ability to secure con-
gressional support for proposed policies inevitably declines as the term of
office nears its end. The influence of an incumbent president will therefore
be likely to be greater as long as there is a chance of being re-elected.
Given the power and prestige of the incumbent in the White House there
has been a persistent fear, throughout the history of the Union, that a strong
president might try to become a permanent president through continual re-
election, and attain a position not far removed from that of a dictator. How-
ever unreal this might seem, it has been a continual fear, which increased as
a consequence of the considerable growth of the power of the president dur-
ing the twentieth century. The Founders of the Constitution decided against
writing into that document a limitation upon the number of terms the presi-
dent might serve, but George Washington, who of all presidents might have
hoped for life tenure of the office, declined to stand again when he had almost
completed his second term, explicitly warning against the dangers of too
long a period of office. This attitude hardened into a two-term tradition that
remained unbroken until 1940, although presidents who had been elected for
two terms persistently hoped for a third term of office. None, however, was
successful until President Franklin Roosevelt, a man of unrivalled popularity
in a time of great tension, was nominated for a third term, and four years
later for yet another. After the war this remarkable achievement, together
with the fears that Roosevelt’s policies engendered, led to demands for curbs
on presidential power. The Republican-dominated Eightieth Congress in
1947 proposed an Amendment to the Constitution limiting presidents to two
terms. It was ratified in 1951 and became the Twenty-Second Amendment. It
has the effect of diminishing the influence and authority, in the second term,