Imperial Presidency Overview Term paper

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Imperial Presidency: Overview

In his book, The Imperial Presidency, Arthur Schlesinger recounts the

rise of the presidency as it grew into the imperial, powerful position that it

is today. His writing reflects a belief that the presidency is becoming too

powerful and that very few people are making a real effort to stop it. He

analyzes the back and forth struggle for power between Congress and the

Presidency. Schlesinger breaks up the first half of the book chronologically. He

begins by discussing the areas concerning the presidency where the founding

fathers agreed and also the areas where they disagreed. He then goes on to

analyze the rise of the imperial presidency through war and recovery, with

emphasis on the events of the twentieth century. After the war in Vietnam,

Schlesinger divides the book based on the specific nature of the events that had

an impact on presidential power. He divides it based on domestic policy, foreign

policy, and the affairs that go on in secrecy.

Schlesinger provides an incredible amount of evidence to recount the ups

and downs of the imperial presidency. He provides a base for his argument with

an in-depth view of what the framers intended and how they set the stage for

development over the next two centuries. An issue that Schlesinger focuses on is

the presidents ability to make war. The decisions of the founders in this area

would have a huge impact on the power contained in the office of the president.

The consensus amongst the framers was that the president, as Commander in Chief,

had the ability to defend the United States and its interests, but the ability

to declare war was vested in the Congress. This decision set the stage for the

struggles between the president and congress. He also discussed the debate over

the power institutionalized in the presidency. At the time, there were two

schools of thought on the subject. Hamilton supported an active president, while

Jefferson argued in favor of a passive president. The final draft included a

compromise of the two theories. There was also some debate over the power of the

president versus the power of congress. Additionally, there was a compromise

made over this issue when writing the final draft. The spirit of compromise

amongst the founders was what provided a viable and secure base for the future

of the presidency.

After his discussion of the founders, Schlesinger shifts to the

president's powers of war. He analyzes every war, excluding the Revolution, that

the United States has participated in up to and including the war in Vietnam. He

discusses the specifics of each scenario and the way in which the president

handles it. Schlesinger develops the slowly growing power of the presidency by

recounting the actions that the president carried out on his own as well as

those that required the consent of Congress to be accomplished. As time

progressed, Schlesinger made note of all the major events that increased and

decreased the power of the presidency. For example, he discusses the almost

dictatorial power of Lincoln during the Civil War and then the impeachment of

Andrew Johnson shortly thereafter. These are two events that are indicative of

the seesaw struggle between the presidency and Congress. Schlesinger goes on to

discuss additional examples of conflict between the presidency and Congress such

as the dominance of Congress during the late 1800's, the annexation of Texas,

the Great Depression, W.W.II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam.

Schlesinger focuses a great deal of attention on the events of the

twentieth century, because, in part, this was when the power of the presidency

vaulted to the level that it currently maintains. The reason for this, in

addition to what the early presidents had done, was that the government was

growing fast and the role of the government was increasing. There were many gray

areas in which the president could extend his power. The power of the president

to make war as Commander in Chief is an example of a gray area where the

presidency was able to gain much power. Schlesinger discusses how the president

was able to gain power through the clause in the Constitution that gives the

president the power to mobilize the military, without the consent of Congress,

in the name of national defense. This clause allowed the president to deploy

forces around the world. The grayness of this area comes from the fact that what

one man may consider an act of defense, another man may consider to be an act of

aggression, and vice versa. Because of this, the presidency was able to gain a

leg up on Congress.

Schlesinger also discusses the actions taken within the inner sanctum of

the White House. His focus is on the presidents from FDR through Nixon. Many of

these men made many controversial decisions while in the oval office.

Schlesinger goes over these actions with a microscope. For instance, he

discusses the extreme secrecy and deception that Nixon practiced while in office.

He analyzes the specific actions of the administration, the reasons for the

actions, and the result of the actions. According to Schlesinger, the result of

Nixon's extreme secrecy led him to be withdrawn from the rest of the country. He

eventually created his own reality within the White House. It was a self-

perceived reality where he could do whatever he wanted, right or wrong. This led

to a somber, macabre mood throughout the White House, and eventually led to

Nixon's downfall. He goes over the administrations of the modern presidents with

a fine-toothed comb. He reviews their actions in reference to their specific

nature (i.e., internal policy and foreign policy). Schlesinger also spends a

chapter discussing the classified actions that only the officials in Washington

knew about. He reviews the covert actions throughout the history of the

presidency, not merely the twentieth century. Although, as is the case with most

other topic areas, he focuses on the modern presidents. The majority of these

secret actions involved either the CIA or the military. Even though we are

unaware that these actions are occurring, they have a big impact on both our

lives and the imperial power of the office of the presidency.

Methodology & Evidence: Imperial Presidency

Schlesinger proves his thesis by following American politics from the

founding fathers up through the Nixon administration. He recounts the major

political actions taken by the...

Imperial Presidency
Arthur Schlesinger
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1973
copyright © 1973 by Arthur Schlesinger
505 pp.

Presidental Power
Richard Neustadt
Simon & Schuster
copyright © 1986 by Macmillan College
Publishing Company, Inc You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 26 May, 2012 from
    <http://essaymania.com/3769/imperial-presidency-overview>

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