The Presidents greatest powers lie within foreign policy. He is Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces and it is their job to defend the USA from all foreign threats. They can order the use of troops overseas for 90 days without declaring war however; after the 90 days and if they want to declare war officially they have to get the approval of the Congress. But the President has often taken military action without declaration of war. American Presidents have authorized military force abroad more than 225 times.
Although different in nature, congress and the President of the United States both hold positions of upmost power and unequivocally important decision-making for the American people. However, the argument always stands: who has more power? The power problem as it stands “...is the need to grant government enough power to effectively address the problems that people expect government to solve, while also limiting power so that it can be held accountable” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.42). Far from perfect, the political system in place attempts to grant both Congress and The President exclusive and shared responsibilities to provide an equal spread of power. Upon founding of the United States government, not all three branches were to share the same amount of power.
In summary, the Congress is given the power to declare war and “to raise and support armies”, but the president is authorized to serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces “when called into actual service of the United States.” This means the President has the power to move troops where he deems fit regardless of congress. See the issue here? In Issue 5 of the reading we hear two sides if the President has unilateral war powers or not. John C. Yoo is a Law professor at the University of California Berkeley says yes he does have unilateral war powers. Yoo “argues that the language of the constitution, long-accepted precedents, and the practical need for a speedy action in emergencies all support broad executive power during war.”(Taking sides p73).
The Senate is more elite and prestigious of the two of the two houses of Congress. The Senate differs from the House mainly because of the way they do business. The Constitution allows the Senate and the House to make its own rules for Parliamentary procedures. One of the Senate rules is a tradition to allow unlimited debate, they have no time limit on discussion of legislation. Both houses have to pass a bill before it becomes a law.
The principle organ of the US state is to legislate, represent and scrutinise the other, safely separated, branches of the government. First of the three elements in which Congress’s primary role plays is in legislation. The very first article of the Constitution lays out how this is done. Bills initiated by both the President and members of Congress are almost certain to be substantially modified as they go through the legislative process, making it very difficult for the President or any political faction to force through their policy agenda. Congress has been somewhat effective in passing laws such as the PATRIOTIC Act under Bush and the Healthcare Reform Act under Obama both show’s that Congress can legislate when it needs be, especially with a majority in both houses.
The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, changed the method of voting in the Electoral College by requiring the electors to cast separate ballots for President and Vice President. (Originally, the electors voted for two candidates for President, with the runner-up becoming Vice President.) But the point of the amendment was to make party competition compatible with the separation of powers by securing the President's independence from Congress. Without that change in the Constitution, the power of electing the President effectively would have devolved from the people (represented indirectly in the Electoral College) to the House of Representatives, where ties between presidential and vice presidential candidates would be decided (as in 1800), and where all sorts of electoral mischief was
However the executive power can and has to be constrained to ensure a more democratic system of governance. It could be argued that in the US the executive has limited power on the domestic front whereas the UK executive is less constrained and appears to have significant power in most areas of political life. It is perhaps useful to start with saying what executive branches are made of in both liberal democracies that are being examined. In the UK the core executive includes the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and its committees, the Prime Minister’s office and the Cabinet Office. In the US the executive branch is associated with the President, the Vice President, Executive Departments, and Agencies.
What were the features of the Weimar Constitution? On the 31st of July 1919, after much debate, the Weimar Constitution was adopted. The first major change was the head of the state. Previously, in the old constitution, the Kaiser inherited his position, but now in the new Weimar constitution, the president was elected into his/her position, and could be re elected, by both men and women over the age of 20. The president was still a very powerful figure; he could block new laws by calling a referendum and could rule without the Reichstag in times of emergency (Article 48).
The House of Commons The House of Commons, the lower House, is the most powerful of the two Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons fulfils several key functions. There are different ways of defining and describing these functions according to different sources and legal theories in the UK. According to Norton there are five main functions of parliament as legislative body. These are: representation, legislature, recruitment, scrutiny and legitimacy.
Discuss the advantages of law making in Parliament There are many advantages within the law making system. One of the main advantages is that a law is made by our elected representatives, making it democratic. The House of Commons is an elected body which could potentially be changed every five years due to a general election, if the government has not performed as the public expected. However, the public vote in the MP’s within the House of Commons, therefore the HOC has the public’s support with certain decisions making it efficient. On the other hand, the House of Lords is not elected but is made up of a wide variety of people with different background and specialised expertise therefore allowing decisions that are made to be less biased and more thorough.