This week Y13 Government and Politics students have been considering the reality behind the powers of the President – is he the most powerful man on earth, or has he only got the power to persuade?

Studying the Presidency reveals that due to the US Constitution all three Branches of Government – Executive (the Presidency), Legislative (Congress) and Judiciary (Supreme Court) have specific powers and responsibilities, but are also limited by ‘checks and balances’ which means no single branch can become too powerful.

For example, although the President may want to follow a specific policy eg Obama wished to introduce tighter gun control in the US. But he could not just pass a new law as he is not a lawmaker – this is for Congress to decide. However, a President is allowed to issue an Executive Order – which has legal power, but this and laws passed by Congress can be struck down by the Supreme Court if it decides it is unconstitutional. The House of Representatives in Congress also have ‘the power of the purse’ which means they control funding and budgets. If they choose to, they can refuse to agree to a budget and stop Presidential or Federal projects. In 1995 President Clinton was forced to end his intervention in Bosnia due to this and in January 2019 President Trump had to face a Government shut down after he failed to agree a budget with Democrats in the House. This meant all Federal employees were unpaid with offices closed for 34 days!

Year 13s have other examples showing Imperial – a strong President able to avoid checks and balances or an Imperilled Presidency – when a President can’t achieve their policies.

George Bush can be seen as an Imperial President as after 9/11 Congress supported him strongly due to the national crisis America faced. They passed the Patriot Act which gave new powers to detect and prevent terrorism.
Shaun Karunakaran

When a President has divided government it is difficult to get laws passed by Congress. This means the opposing party to the President controls Congress. Obama faced this when trying to pass immigration reform and gun controls, as he did not have strong backing in Congress, so his ability to persuade was limited which prevented him from putting his agenda into action.
Naiomi Djanmah

Republican President Trump had Republican control of Congress until 2018. However he was unable to repeal Obamacare even though this had been a main election campaign goal. Fellow Republicans in the Senate refused to repeal Obamacare – amending it instead. This shows the President can’t always get what he wants – even when his party controls Congress!

Elisa Reci

Obama shows that a President can be Imperial in Foreign Policy but Imperilled at home. He used his powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to intervene in Libya in 2011 without telling Congress and later agreed a Presidential Agreement with Iran to control their nuclear development. This was because he knew the Senate would not agree to a Treaty with Iran over this and a President must get Treaties approved by Congress. However, at home he failed to get any gun control measures accepted and the Supreme Court overturned his immigration reforms.

Kenneth Freeman