PRESIDENT - informal sources of power Flashcards
Electoral mandate
most presidents achieve their most important goals in the first two years of office when they are elected on a strong wave of support.
Biden = 51% electoral mandate - he didn’t experience the strong wave of support due to the pandemic and Trump’s ungraceful handover (Capitol riot). This can be seen through his failure to get through the Infrastructure Bill quicker, and his current failure to strengthen voting rights (failure of John Lewis Voting Rights Act etc.
National events
national events can really aid a president’s power as it can reduce the time the president has to devote to other policies which can have an impact on public opinion.
9/11 exacerbated Bush’s powers as the unity of public support for the president increased - following 9/11, he exerted huge control over domestic and foreign policy.
Sep 7-10 = 51% approval rating
Sep 14-15 = 86%
The Cabinet
cabinet collectively has limited power and have very few regular meetings.
cabinet serves at the president’s pleasure - the cabinet has no constitutional status which would allow it to control policy and it cannot claim any sort of national mandate.
e.g., Biden’s current Secretary of State is Antony Blinken
VP
constitutionally, the VP only has two powers - to take over for the president if necessary and to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie in the Senate.
Kamala Harris is Biden’s VP - she balanced the ticket very well!
power of VP is dependent on the president entirely - Trump demanded subservience whereas Biden has delegated considerable powers to Harris, putting her in charge of migration efforts and challenges at the Southern border.
