ETVT that the presidents 'power to persuade' is the most important power (30) Flashcards
Power of persuade isnt
Sometimes even if congress is controlled by the president’s party powers of persuasion can be very ineffective, this shows that they are not always useful.
Biden and Joe Manchin, Build Back Better Act 2021, passed in the House, Joe Manchin publicly pulled his support. Obama was unable to persuade congress to introduce gun controls after Sandy Hook school shooting, Assault weapons ban 2013, 15 Democrats voted against the bill. Trump 2018 government shutdown, failed to persuade the house to agree on appropriations bill that includes $5.6 billion of new funding for the US-Mexico border wall. Republicans controlled both houses.
Power of persuasion is
Professor Richard Neustadt famously remarked that ‘the presidents power is the power to persuade’, this is because almost every power the president has Is checked by congress, this means that presidents must use their persuasive powers to push through their legislative programme.
Congress has become increasingly divided and between 1993 and 2022 the presidency and both houses of congress were controlled by the same party for only 10 out of the 30 years, for example during Bill Clintons presidency the Republicans controlled both houses for half his time in office, between 1997 and 2000.
Even in times where you have control of both houses it is very important you can persuade your own party on your legislation.
Obama key piece of legislation ACA 2010 was passed in the senate after significant negotiation with democrats in the senate, he learnt from the mistakes of Clinton and dropped the most radical elements of his reforms to ensure support of the most conservative of democrats. Bush was able to persuade both democrats and Republicans to support his No child left behind act 2002.
Biden reached out to all sections of his party who then rallied around the American Rescue plan 2021, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Executive orders isnt
However, although executive orders are easy for a president to issue, they are equally easy for a successor to revoke, for example in 1984 President Reagan signed an executive order that prohibited family planning clinics that received federal funds from informing their clients about abortion options, however within days of taking office in 1993 this policy was revoked by Bill Clinton.
President Trumps ‘Muslim ban’ executive order was reversed along with one including the construction of a wall on the Mexico border and a ban on transgender people from serving in the military in the first 100 days of his presidency.
2009 Barack Obama, this executive order aimed to ensure the Guantanamo Bay detention centre would be closed within a year, however congress prevented this action by refusing to fund the effort with an overwhelming 90-6 vote in the senate.
Executive orders is
These powers are not expressed in the constitution but interpreted from the President being given ‘executive power’ in article 2, they can therefore use this power to circumvent congress.
They have the force of law.
Trump used executive order so he could pass his immigration policy, executive order 13769 was labelled as a ‘Muslim ban’, it required additional security from travellers from countries such as Yemen, Syria and Iran, and banned new visas for 90 days.
In his 2014 state of the union address Obama facing a divided congress remarked that ‘I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone’. When government or congress is divided arguably therefore executive orders are the most important power.
Obama preceded to sign 276 executive orders into law, in 2009 he reversed practises of the Bush administration relating to the interrogation and detention of terrorist suspects.
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Foreign policy
