Chapter 13 presidency

Chapter 13: The Presidency

• The President is chief of state, chief executive, chief administrator, chief diplomat, commander in chief, chief legislator, party chief, and chief citizen.

• The President both reigns and rules at the same time.

• He has to play all of his roles simultaneously.

THE PRESIDENTS ROLES

Reigning Champs:

DUKE BLUE DEVILS!

FORMAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Race and gender: In the past, white males had an advantage

• Other informal qualifications are wealth, religion, background, marital status, and military service.

INFORMAL QUALIFICATIONS

Would you make a good President?

EXECUTIVE COMMAND

• The president can be elected to a four year term.

• After that they can be re-elected to another four year term.

• The max length for a president to serve is ten years long.

• Up until 1951 president could serve as many terms as they wanted.

• The president makes roughly 400,000 dollars a year. They provide them with a 50,000 dollar expense allowance.

THE PRESIDENTS TERM AND PAY

1. Vice President 2. Speaker of the House

3. President pro tempore of the Senate 4. Secretary of State

5. Secretary of Treasury 6. Secretary of Defense

7. Attorney General 8. Secretary of the Interior 9. Secretary of Agriculture 10. Secretary of Commerce

11. Secretary of Labor 12. Secretary of Health and Human Services

13. Secretary of Housing and Urban development 14. Secretary of Transportation

15. Secretary of Energy 16. Secretary of Education

17. Secretary of Veterans Affairs 18. Secretary of Homeland Security

PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION

The Presidential Succession act of 1947 made the previous list in affect.

There has been no time in history where anyone other then the Vice President has succeeded the President.

PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION

ALL IN DAYS WORK!

• Section 3 and 4 of the 25th amendment fill the gap by stating two ways the vice president can become the acting President.

• The two ways are:• 1. The President informs

Congress in writing that he is incapable of his powers.

• 2. The Vice President and majority of the cabinet inform Congress in writing inform congress that the President is so incapacitated.

PRESIDENTIAL DISABILITY

• It assigns the position two duties: (1) to preside over the Senate and (2) to help decide the question of presidential disability.

• People that served as Vice President feel that it is a “laid back job.”

• Presidents choose Vice President who would help them win by balancing the ticket.

IMPORTANCE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

• The vice presidency has been vacant 18 times thus far: nine times by succession to the presidency twice by resignation, and seven times by death.

• The 25th Amendment dealt with this matter that went into affect in 1973.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL VACANCY

Electoral college: a group of people chosen from each state to formally select the President and Vice President.

Flaws arose when parties began to form and in 1800 when there was a tie for Presidency the 12th Amendment was

produced which separates the election of the President and Vice President.

THE RISE OF PARTIES

The Constitution says nothing about presidential nominations, the convention system has been built entirely by the two

major parties.Once a place is chosen the committee

issues its “call” and informs each State how many delegates it may send.

The # of delegates is determined by the number of electoral votes that State

receives.

THE ROLE OF CONVENTIONS

A Presidential Primary is an election in which a party’s voters• 1)choose some or all of a State party organization’s

delegates to their party’s extent • 2)express a preference among various contenders for

their party’s presidential nomination.First appeared in the early 1900’s.These primaries vary greatly from state to state.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

Some were winner-take-all: when the candidate who won the preference vote automatically wins

the support of all delegates.The Democrats have a proportional

representation rule which is any candidate that wins at least 15 percent of the votes get the

corresponding share of the primary vote.Critics believe each major party should hold one

primary instead of numerous smaller ones.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES (CONT.)

• National Convention: the meetings at which the delegates vote to pick their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Three major goals: • 1)naming the candidates • 2)bring the various functions and leading personalities

together • 3)adopting the party’s platform (basic principles, stands

on certain matters, and objectives for the campaign and beyond)

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

1. The first day is spent organizing and speeches, including the keynote address

2. The second day the presentation and adoption of committee reports are done

3. The third day the nomination of the party’s candidate for presidency is chosen

4. The final day the nomination of vice presidency is chosen

THE FOUR DAYS

People with substantial and well-known political

experienceGovernors have the best

chanceProtestant

Come from larger statesPleasant and healthy

appearancegood speaking abilities

male

WHO IS NOMINATED

Electors chosen are expected to

automatically vote for their party’s candidate.

Electors are chosen by popular vote in each State on the

Tuesday after the first Monday in November.Maine and Nebraska

are chosen on a winner-take-all basis.Majority is needed to

win, 270 of 538.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

1)The winner of the popular vote is not

guaranteed presidency.2)Electors are not required to vote in

accord with the popular vote.

3)Any election might have to be decided in the

House of Reps.

FLAWS IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

• The district plan is an idea in which the electors would be chosen in each state the same way as members of Congress would be.

• The proportional plan is when each presidential candidate would receive the same share of a State’s electoral vote as he or she received in the State’s popular vote.

Direct popular test would be ridding of the entire electoral college system, this is the most widespread idea.

PROPOSED REFORMS

1) it is a well known process and it is impossible to know if any of these other plans will have defects.

2) it usually identifies a winner quickly and certainly (for the exception of the 2000 election)

3) only 2 elections have ever had to go to the House of Reps.

SUPPORT OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE