![]() ![]() Questions about the boundaries of presidential power emerged almost immediately in the early republic - not with Andrew Jackson’s swagger and bank killing, not with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, not with the Progressives and the expansion of the administrative state. But viewed through another lens, the presidency is also alarmingly powerful. American presidents lag behind their counterparts in other countries when it comes to legislative leadership, as Zach Elkins points out. Yet the structure of the government puts the president in a position to both make decisions and articulate them in a way that Congress rarely can. Congress has the power of the purse and to declare war, as well as a role in the foreign policy duties of the president (like the requirement for the Senate to ratify treaties). ![]() When we look at these two articles, the text and the structure of the Constitution are in tension. For one thing, in contrast with Article I, which lays out the duties and limitations of Congress, Article II barely says anything, leaving us to interpret what “executive power” means and what its limits are. Constitution without getting into an argument with it.” The sparse text of Article II, which establishes the executive branch, especially invites such argument. Doctorow once wrote, “One cannot consider the U.S. ![]()
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