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Despite that, it makes it a lot more difficult to successfully pass necessary bills due to the checks and balances in United States and the weak presidency. Neustadt’s theory implies that the presidents success relies on not only persuading and bargaining with other branches, especially congress but to influence the executive branch itself. it prevents the president from abusing power or acting like a king.
The government of the united states is composed of legislative, executive, and judicial branch. All three branches check on each other to ensure that constitution is being followed and no individual is above the law. The founding fathers were afraid that the presidency would behave like a monarch. Therefore, the delegates imposed significant limits on the presidential office that are written in article II which resulted in weakening the president. Article II of the constitution creates the presidency and describes its duties in one thousand words long. The main powers that are given to the president is to veto a bill or sign it. however, the veto can be overturned by congress with a 2/3 majority. Only Congress could propose a bill, article II declares that the president’s job is to faithfully execute the law and the judicial branch ensures that the process is constitutional. Whereas, the sitting president has to enforce the laws signed by earlier presidents even if he or she doesnt agree with the policy. Anything the president does can be overturned or blocked by the congress. Therefore, the president cannot make any progress without the cooperation of the congress. The public complains pace of the process in the government, but thats how the founding fathers wanted it to ensure the system is working for the people, not people for the system.
Richard Neustadt discusses the presidential powers and skills that would result in legislative success. Richard Neustadt worked in executive branch under Franklin Roosevelts term as a president, then proceeded to serve under president Truman and briefly worked for John F Kennedy. He observed the importance of presidential power while working in the executive branch. Richard Neustadt implies that just having a position or power in the government is no guarantee of success or leadership.
Neustadt implies that the restrictions on the presidency suggest how the government should be working. The constitutional convention of 1787 did not create a government of separated powers but rather created a government of sharing powers. The separateness of institutions and sharing of the power is what makes the presidents persuading very critical. When the authority is shared and the outcome of one individual’s work does not affect others, thats what makes the president’s persuasive role more important to convince such individuals that what the oval office wants from them is important for their sake and their authority. Persuasive power is not just only a reasoned and charming argument, but also to influence individuals to cooperate with his vision or to fear the consequences by going against him. Neustadt states that the presidential powers would be ineffective when the president commands but rather remains applicable when he persuades. The presidents authority is an advantage for him in persuading other people, for the reason that when other individuals are in a need to use his authority. From the veto to appointments, from publicity to budgeting, or anything that the white house controls over the unites state’s political system. The people in power understand that at some point of time, they will need to depend on the president in order to do their job. Therefore, the president can use that authority as an advantage in negotiations with other branches. in other means we can view it like a business trade that if the other branch helps the white house in succession of their vision then the white house would help them in return by using the presidential authority that they need to use. Thats what makes the bargaining skill of the president very critical.
Not only the president depends on the cooperation of other branches in the government in order to be successful, he also depends on the knowledge of his own staff and individuals in the executive branch to guide him through the process and his judgment on that knowledge. the president will fail certainly if he chooses to turn to one individual for advice, not to read or hear the details on the individuals point of view or consents to secrecy from everyone whose task is to protect him from making mistakes. Neustadt believes that a Skeptical president would be a better leader than a trustful president, curious president is better than a committed commander in chief.
Also, Neustadt points out the importance of the presidents public prestige in his success. He states that. Public prestige deals with the president’s popular support outside Washington and Most politicians and bureaucrats do not watch poll numbers directly; they watch Congress. reputation conveys leeway because low prestige encourages resistance.
Neustadt talks about the importance of professional reputation for the success of presidency. The president’s professional reputation involves how others expect him to react. If the president fails rapidly, it will weaken him over period of time. Neustadt implies that Tenacity is important. If a president cannot convince others that he will inevitably win, at least he needs to convince them that there will be consequences to cross him. You can’t punish everyone, but you need to selectively punish your enemies and reward your allies.
Lets look at Obamas administration for example. Barack Obama took the office in 2008 and became the first African American president that won the united states presidency. When he took over the office the democrats had the majority of the congress. Therefore, it was much easier for the Obama administration to successfully pass legislations. One of the Obamas 2008 campaign promises was to reform the united state’s healthcare. In 2010, he was able to successfully pass the health care reform bill also known as Obamacare. although it was heavily opposed by the republicans in the congress. Obamas best years were in 2009 and 2010 where he was able to pass series of legislations such as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which was the new set of rules for wall street to prevent another recess, hate crime prevention act of 2009, the Obamacare and many more. During the 111th congress and Obama, there were 383 bills that were signed into a law.
Obamas best years lasted until November 2nd, 2010 where the republicans won the majority of house of representatives and ended the unified Democratic control of Congress and the presidency. Many of the Republican nominations were candidates that were supporters of the tea party movement. The tea party movement is a republican political movement that have called for lower taxes, and for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget deficit through decreased government spending. They were heavily against Obama administrations policies and vowed to do stop Obamas legislations. The legislative activities after the 2010 election decreased dramatically because of the tension between the congress and the executive branch. John Boehner, the speaker of the house at the time stated that We’re going to do everything and I mean everything we can do to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can . Also mitch McConnell, senate minority leader at the time confirmed republicans plan by saying that The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. Obamas inability to work with the congress environmental, energy, fiscal and other matters forced him to change his style of governing to heavy executive orders.
One of the Obamas campaign promises was to shut down Guantanamo bay. With executive order 13492 president Obama ordered to shut down Guantanamo bay. But in 2011 Congress began placing restrictions on Guantanamo transfers in its yearly defense authorization bill, effectively stopping the president from transferring the detainees to a U.S. facility. which left the president with no choice but to keep the detainees in Guantanamo bay. President Obama failed to close the facility because of the congress. Also, President Obama took a major blow on September of 2016 when the congress overrode his veto on the bill that let the family victims of 9/11 sue Saudi Arabia.
according to the Washington Times Legislative Index, President Obama oversaw the deepest legislative malaise in modern political history. Over his two terms of eight years, he managed to sign just 1,227 bills into law. Thats less than one terms of George of H.W Bush and president carter.
In conclusion, the first two years of the Obama administration was successful because of the cooperation between the congress and the white house. However, after the democrats lost the house of representatives, Obamas inability to get congress on the same page, his public prestige between the Republicans made it impossible for him to push his agenda or pass legislations. Anything the president does can be approved or stopped by the congress and thats how the founding fathers wanted it. for this reason, it proves why Neustadt’s theory is correct on the importance of how the presidents ability to persuade and bargain with the congress makes a successful presidency. The main reason why President Obama was unsuccessful with passing his legislation was his inability to work with congress and he chose to force his way to push his policies.
References
- Neustadt, Richard E. Presidential Power. New American Library, 1960.
- Barack Obama Executive Orders Subjects. National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/obama-subjects.html.
- Tea Party Movement. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement.
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