presidency of the United States of

America, chiefexecutive office of the United States. In contrast to

many countries with parliamentary forms of government, where the
office of president, or head of state, is mainly ceremonial, in the
United States the president is vested with great authority and is
arguably the most powerful elected official in the world. The nations
founders originally intended the presidency to be a narrowly restricted
institution. They distrusted executive authority because their
experience with colonial governors had taught them that executive
power was inimical to liberty, because they felt betrayed by the
actions of George III, the ing of Great !ritain and Ireland, and
because they considered a strong executive incompatible with the
republicanism embraced in the"eclaration of Independence #$%%&'.
(ccordingly, their revolutionary state constitutions provided for only
nominal executive branches, and the (rticles of
)onfederation #$%*$+*,', the first -national. constitution, established
no executive branch. /or coverage of the 01$0 election,see United
States 2residential 3lection of 01$0.
Duties of the office
The Constitution succinctly defines presidential functions, powers, and
responsibilities. The presidents chief duty is to make sure that the laws are
faithfully executed, and this duty is performed through an elaborate system
of executive agencies that includes cabinet-level departments. Presidents
appoint all cabinet heads and most other high-ranking officials of the
executive branch of the federal government. They also nominate all udges
of the federal udiciary, including the members of the !upreme Court. Their
appointments to executive and udicial posts must be approved by a maority
of the !enate "one of the two chambers ofCongress, the legislative branch of
the federal government, the other being the #ouse of $epresentatives%.
The !enate usually confirms these appointments, though it occasionally
reects a nominee to whom a maority of members have strong obections.
The president is also the commander in chief of the countrys military and
has unlimited authority to direct the movements of land, sea, and air forces.
The president has the power to make treaties with foreign governments,
though the !enate must approve such treaties by a two-thirds maority.
&inally, the president has the power to approve or reect "veto% bills passed
by Congress, though Congress can override the presidents veto by
summoning a two-thirds maority in favour of the measure.
Historical development
'y the time the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia on
(ay )*, +,-,, wartime and postwar difficulties had convinced most of the
delegates that an energetic national executive was necessary. They
approached the problem warily, however, and a third of them favoured a
proposal that would have allowed Congress to select multiple single-term
executives, each of whom would be subect to recall by state governors. The
subect consumed more debate at the convention than any other. The
stickiest points were the method of election and the length of the executives
term. .t first, delegates supported the idea that the executive should be
chosen by Congress/ however, congressional selection would make the
executive dependent on the legislature unless the president was ineligible for
reelection, and ineligibility would necessitate a dangerously long term "six
or seven years was the most common suggestion%.
The delegates debated the method of election until early !eptember +,-,,
less than two weeks before the convention ended. &inally, the Committee on
0nfinished Parts, chaired by 1avid 'rearley of 2ew 3ersey, put forward a
cumbersome proposal4the electoral college4that overcame all obections.
The system allowed state legislatures4or the voting public if the
legislatures so decided4to choose electors e5ual in number to the states
representatives and senators combined/ the electors would vote for two
candidates, one of whom had to be a resident of another state. 6hoever
received a maority of the votes would be elected president, the runner-
up vice president. 7f no one won a maority, the choice would be made by
the #ouse of $epresentatives, each state delegation casting one vote. The
president would serve a four-year term and be eligible for continual
reelection "by the Twenty-second .mendment, adopted in +8*+, the
president was limited to a maximum of two terms%.
0ntil agreement on the electoral college, delegates were unwilling to entrust
the executive with significant authority, and most executive powers,
including the conduct of foreign relations, were held by the !enate. The
delegates hastily shifted powers to the executive, and the result was
ambiguous. .rticle 77, !ection +, of the Constitution of the 0nited
!tates begins with a simple declarative statement9 :The executive Power
shall be vested in a President of the 0nited !tates of .merica.; The phrasing
can be read as a blanket grant of power, an interpretation that is buttressed
when the language is compared with the 5ualified language of .rticle 79 :.ll
legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the 0nited
!tates.;
This loose construction, however, is mitigated in two important ways. &irst,
.rticle 77 itemi<es, in sections ) and =, certain presidential powers, including
those of commander in chief of the armed forces, appointment making,
treaty making, receiving ambassadors, and calling Congress into special
session. #ad the first articles section been intended as an open-ended
authori<ation, such subse5uent specifications would have made no sense.
!econd, a si<able array of powers traditionally associated with the executive,
including the power to declare war, issue letters of mar5ue and reprisal, and
coin and borrow money, were given to Congress, not the president, and the
power to make appointments and treaties was shared between the president
and the !enate.
The delegates could leave the subect ambiguous because of their
understanding that >eorge 6ashington "+,-8?8,% would be selected as the
first president. They deliberately left blanks in .rticle 77, trusting
that 6ashington would fill in the details in a satisfactory manner. 7ndeed, it
is safe to assert that had 6ashington not been available, the office might
never have been created.
!@A@CT72> . P$@!71@2T
(lthough the framers of the )onstitution established a system for
electing the president4the electoral college4they did not devise a
method for nominating presidential candidates or even for choosing
electors. They assumed that the selection process as a whole would
be nonpartisan and devoid of factions #or political parties', which they
believed were always a corrupting influence in politics. The original
process wored well in the early years of the republic, when
5ashington, who was not affiliated closely with any faction, was the
unanimous choice of electors in both $%*, and $%,0. 6owever, the
rapid development of political parties soon presented a ma7or
challenge, one that led to changes that would mae presidential
elections more partisan but ultimately more democratic.
The practical and constitutional inade8uacies of the original electoral
college system became evident in the election of $*11, when the two
"emocratic9:epublican candidates, ;efferson and !urr, received an
e8ual number of electoral votes and thereby left the presidential
election to be decided by the 6ouse of :epresentatives. The Twelfth
(mendment #$*1<', which re8uired electors to vote for president and
vice president separately, remedied this constitutional defect.
!ecause each state was free to devise its own system of choosing
electors, disparate methods initially emerged. In some states electors
were appointed by the legislature, in others they were popularly
elected, and in still others a mixed approach was used. In the first
presidential election, in $%*,, four states #"elaware, =aryland,
2ennsylvania, and >irginia' used systems based on popular election.
2opular election gradually replaced legislative appointment, the most
common method through the $%,1s, until by the $*?1s all states
except South )arolina chose electors by direct popular vote. See
also Sidebar@ Aeys to the 5hite 6ouse.
The evolution of the nomination process
KING CAUCUS
5hile popular voting was transforming the electoral college system,
there were also dramatic shifts in the method for nominating
presidential candidates. There being no consensus on a successor to
5ashington upon his retirement after two terms as president, the
newly formed political parties 8uicly asserted control over the
process. !eginning in $%,&, caucuses of the parties congressional
delegations met informally to nominate their presidential and vice
presidential candidates, leaving the general public with no direct
input. The subse8uent demise in the $*$1s of the /ederalist 2arty,
which failed even to nominate a presidential candidate in $*01, made
nomination by the "emocratic9:epublican caucus tantamount to
election as president. This early nomination system4dubbed -Aing
)aucus. by its critics4evoed widespread resentment, even from
some members of the "emocratic9:epublican caucus. !y $*0< it had
fallen into such disrepute that only one9fourth of the "emocratic9
:epublican congressional delegation too part in the caucus that
nominated Secretary of the Treasury 5illiam )rawford instead of
more popular figures such as ;ohn Buincy (dams and(ndrew
;acson. ;acson, (dams, and 6enry )lay eventually 7oined
)rawford in contesting the subse8uent presidential election, in which
;acson received the most popular and electoral votes but was
denied the presidency by the 6ouse of :epresentatives #which
selected (dams' after he failed to win the re8uired ma7ority in the
electoral college. ;acson, who was particularly enraged following
(damss appointment of )lay as secretary of state, called
unsuccessfully for the abolition of the electoral college, but he would
get his revenge by defeating (dams in the presidential election of
$*0*.
T! C"N#!NTI"N S$ST!%
In a saloon in !altimore, =aryland, in $*?0, ;acsons "emocratic
2arty held one of the countrys first national conventions #the first
such convention had been held the previous year4in the same
saloon4by the (nti9=asonic 2arty'. The "emocrats nominated
;acson as their presidential candidate and =artin >an !uren as his
running mate and drafted a party platform #see political convention'. It
was assumed that open and public conventions would be more
democratic, but they soon came under the control of small groups of
state and local party leaders, who handpiced many of the delegates.
The conventions were often tense affairs, and sometimes multiple
ballots were needed to overcome party divisions4particularly at
conventions of the "emocratic 2arty, which re8uired its presidential
and vice presidentialnominees to secure the support of two9thirds of
the delegates #a rule that was abolished in $,?&'.
The convention system was unaltered until the beginning of the 01th
century, when general disaffection with elitism led to the growth of the
2rogressive movement and the introduction in some states of binding
presidential primary elections, which gave ran9and9file party
members more control over the delegate9selection process. !y $,$&
some 01 states were using primaries, though in subse8uent decades
several states abolished them. /rom $,?0 to $,&* the number of
states holding presidential primaries was fairly constant #between $0
and $,', and presidential nominations remained the province of
convention delegates and party bosses rather than of voters. Indeed,
in $,C0 "emocratic convention delegates selected (dlai
Stevenson as the partys nominee though 3stes Aefauver had won
more than three9fifths of the votes in that years presidential
primaries. In $,&*, at a raucous convention in )hicago that was
marred by violence on the citys streets and chaos in the convention
hall, >ice 2resident6ubert 6umphrey captured the "emocratic
2artys presidential nomination despite his not having contested a
single primary.