美国总统政治制度研究

发布时间：2016-04-27 21:56

总统和国会在推动整个国家平稳运行的过程中携手合作。作为传统，国会在各种立法职能中扮演着更为广泛的角色，，检查总统的过度行为。根据菲夫纳和戴维森，“总统是完全依赖于个性和执政风格”（235）。例如，国会有责任审查总统提出的预算。预算的内容是由国会的严格评估，由总统审批认为是有益的预算并成为法律。总统和国会双方一起讨论需要进一步澄清的建议。

回想起来，宪法确立了总统和国会互相制衡的制度。这已被发现是非常必要的。在总统提出预算的同时也提供指导方向和领导对已被视为必要的程序。此外，工会消息的状态定期由总统在年度基础上提出。发生在国会举行联合会议之前的事情。所有关系到该预算的预期目标都必须严格审查（克罗宁和热那亚287）。

The president and the Congress work hand in hand in the process of facilitating smooth running of the entire country. as the tradition, the Congress plays the broader role of checking the excesses of the president in various legislative functions. According to Pfiffner and Davidson, "presidency is entirely dependent on the personality and style of the incumbent" (235). For instance, the Congress has the duty of reviewing the budget presented by the president. The content of the budget is critically assessed by the Congress and what is perceived to be beneficial is passed and later assented into law by the president. Other proposals that require further clarification may be discussed by both parties, i.e. the President and the Congress.

In retrospect, the constitution established a system of checks and balances between the President and Congress. This has been found to be very necessary. It is upon the President to offer guidance; direction and leadership on programs that have been deemed necessary and at the same time propose a budget. In addition, a state of the union message is regularly presented by the President on an annual basis. This occurs before the Congress can hold its joint session. All the tentative goals attached to the proposed budget are critically examined (Cronin & Genovese 287). Even though the President submits a budget to the Congress, there is no surety that he will win it all. On the other hand, the main role of the Congress is to enact pieces of legislations which cannot become law unless the President appends his signature. The Congress may also enact additional laws especially if there is need of doing so.

As Genovese observes, the former presidents "exercised legitimate emergency powers in the midst of crises" (187). The act that the President can lead the Congress emanates from the constitutional powers the President has. The available tools of leadership are derived from the constitution itself. For instance, the President is the Chief Legislature and as such, he has the power to either sign or veto the bills passed by the Congress. By so doing, he provides proxy leadership of this powerful and independent institution. Besides, in the event that the Congress is not in session and the President feels that the House should reconvene to handle an emergency, the constitution grants him the power to convene a Congress session (Cronin & Genovese 185). Moreover, the President still remains at the center the law making process owing to the fact that he has to provide an annual state of the union message.

Another powerful tool that the President can use to lead the Congress is the constitutional position of the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. However, the President may later seek endorsement by Congress especially on matters related to budgetary allocation to support military operations abroad. Negotiation of treaties is also the sole discretion of the President. It is part of management since "management and administration are critical to modern presidency" (Pfiffner and Davidson 238). Matters dealing with foreign affairs lie squarely on the shoulder of the President. Hence, the leadership available here for the President is to suggest legislation to the Congress and as a party leader, the President can lobby for the passage of the bill in Congress. This is a very powerful tool which the President can employ in offering leadership to the Congress.

In addition, the immediate administrative body called the cabinet is a very viable tool for leading the Congress either directly or indirectly. The bureaucratic process is paramount and the President ensures that it runs smoothly with minimal hitches. The bureaucracy can only run efficiently with the help of cabinet office appointed by the President.

Leading Congress is one of the daunting tasks the President faces on each single day bearing in mind that the "congress is only the most obvious of the political constituencies constraining presidential management" (Pfiffner & Davidson 253). Firstly, it is understood that the President is constitutionally recognized as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and has the power of regulating the control of the public on the military. The man limitation arises from the fact that the President cannot engage the military and US troops in foreign disputes for a period more than three months without the endorsement of the Congress. This makes it cumbersome for the President to have full control ad leadership of this legislative house.

On matters of appointing top government officials, the President has no total freedom of doing so due the prevailing powers of the Congress. Although the President is the chief director of diplomatic talks as well as the chief determiner of foreign relations, the Congress carries the responsibility of clearing most appointments made by the President. For example, the Senate has to ratify any foreign treaty before being fully implemented. Further, the Congress may also be compelled to examine the foreign policies pursued by the President.

The president can indirectly control the court system, for example by offering Presidential pardon to offenders (Pfiffner & Davidson 442). Moreover, he has the power of appointing judges attached to the federal system. However, these judicial powers are regulated and limited by the Congress in the sense that the Senate has to approve all such judicial appointments by the President. Besides, although the President can grant pardons, incidents related to impeachment cannot be interfered with at all.

The relationship between the President and the congress is dependent on a myriad of other relationships, top on it being whether the government s acting in unity or divided altogether. The other dominant factor that cannot be ignored is the prevailing relationship between the President and his or her party (Genovese 186). Other relationships worth considering include that of the interest groups and the President's political party, the public and the President and finally the political parties and the Congress. When a government is divided, the relationship between the President and the Congress is equally affected, sometimes positively, other times negatively. In a divided government, the President and the both houses in the Congress are not likely from the same party.
A divided government mostly hampers the relationship between the President and the Congress since they will often clash in terms of ideas related to the enactment of national policies. Either the President or the opposing congress may opt to play politics by discrediting the legislative agenda of the other as part of winning the approval of voters. In the event that there is a two party system, the main role of the opposite party is to oppose the legislative initiative of the President. in addition, a political party cannot be held accountable by voters in a case whereby the policy making process is duly controlled by each party.
On the other hand, there are other scholars who have presented an argument that a government which is divided is beneficial contrary to the popular belief. According to their arguments, no single political party can gain too much prominence whenever a government is divided and consequently the relationship between the president and Congress can never be harmed by opinioned differences (Pfiffner & Davidson 464). Therefore, a party control will influence the success of a President from the supportive point of view. If the President has full control of his party, it will be possible to marshal support in Congress and outwit much of the prevailing opposition and thus the President will be in a position to not only pursued his legislative agenda well but also remain powerful and successful in his leadership.
The public opinion is one of the most important factors as far the President's leadership is concerned. The role played by the public opinion is manifest during the electioneering period, when the actual elections are taking place and even during the Presidential term in White House. Through the use of opinion polls, the public opinion can be heard and this can ruin or benefit the sitting President. The opinion polls are used to gather people's feelings and perceptions on how they think the government of the day has dealt with certain matters of national importance (Pfiffner & Davidson 438). Depending on how the leadership skills and competences are being received by the public, the opinion polls are often dynamic and subject to change quite often. Depending on how the general public responds, the Congress might sometimes be compelled to react accordingly to the views of the public thereby impacting on the leadership of the President in Congress (Genovese 203). The second most important factor that may influence the President's leadership in Congress is the presence of interest groups. Such pressure groups may join forces to lobby for or against certain government policies which they think are affecting them. When these groups join in solidarity to push for their needs, the Congress may equally be compelled to act appropriately and as a result, the leadership of the President will be affected. The President's ability to offer leadership may be grossly hampered especially if there is a growing number of citizens who are not happy by the government leadership.
One daunting task any sitting President will face while in office is the need to keep the economy strong in spite of the prevailing circumstances like the recently concluded recession. If the country's economy is underperforming, the President will often find himself at crossroads; not just in terms of leading the Congress in seeking ways of economic recovery, but also reassuring the American public that the situation will not persist and an urgent solution is being sought. Although the President may put forward his agenda to the Congress as the Chief legislature, it may as well be rejected, hampering his leadership even further.
Moreover, the Senate has to offer guidance as well as endorse most of the legislative agenda of the President hence the cause of friction in leading the Congress. Apart from raising or lowering taxes, the President has no full control of resuscitating a struggling economy and unfortunately his leadership is often criticized by Congress whenever the country experiences an economic downturn (Genovese 197). Therefore, a dismally performing economy has proved to be a real hurdle in as far as the leadership of the Congress is concerned.
Issues surrounding domestic policy are broad and diverse ranging from law enforcement, energy to poverty. Initially, "foreign policy was to be a shared responsibility of the President and Congress (Genovese 181). One outstanding domestic policy that has been on the public limelight is health care insurance. In fact, the Presidential leadership is quite often engaged with domestic policies than foreign. In order for the presidential leadership to leave a mark abroad, the leadership style should be influential in the domestic arena.
The Presidential leadership has often sought to centralize the domestic policy issues for easy coordination and implementation of the same since it is not just a matter of managing domestic affairs but as Genovese notes, "the great presidents were great becausea

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