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Unit 7: Constitutional Structure: Executive

the laws but not so strong as to assume the character of dictatorship. His strong executive authority Notes
is circumscribed by the arrangement of checks and balances. His determining voice in the sphere of
administration is integrally linked with the checks of legislative and judicial organs of the federal
government. That is why, Lincoln’s Secretary of State (WH. Seward) could confidently say about this
office: “We elect a king for four years and give him absolute power within certain limits which, after
all, he can interpret for himself.” Munro aptly observes: “Strength with safety was what the framers
of the Constitution endeavoured to combine in the Presidential office adequate authority but with
firm checks imposed upon it.”
The functions and powers of the American President may be discussed under five heads — executive,
legislative, financial, judicial and emergency. These are:
In the first place, we refer to the most important powers of the President relating to administration of
the country. The Constitution vests in him executive authority. As head of the national administration,
he assumes high technical responsibilities in the sphere of enforcement of the fundamental law of the
land, laws made by the Congress and decisions given by the courts. He can employ military force to
suppress a recalcitrant mob or a State of the American union. However, he has some discretion in
determining the degree of vigour or leniency with which a particular law or judicial decision is to be
enforced. The Constitution gives him the power to appoint (with the consent of the Senate) ministers,
ambassadors, federal judges and many other officers of the United States. The convention of senatorial
courtesy has given a lot of free hand to the President in this regard.
The Constitution empowers the President to appoint principal officers of the various departments
(ministers) with the approval of the Senate and require their opinion in writing upon any subject
relating to the duties of their respective offices. In this regard he may obtain their views either orally
in a meeting or in writing, but he is not bound to accept them. Then, he is the chief foreign policy-
maker and the accredited official spokesman of the country in international affairs. For this he not
only appoints ambassadors and consuls but also negotiates agreements and concludes treaties with
foreign governments and implements them after their ratification by the Senate. He has complete
discretion in matters of recognising or derecognising a government and in his hands the act of
recognition of a foreign government is both a constitutive and a declaratory function. However, the
President has secured a novel way of implementing his foreign policy by circumventing the over-
ridding control of the Senate. He may make ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ or ‘executive agreements’ and
thereby effect certain important commitments which need not be ratified by the Senate as they do not
amount to being a foreign treaty. He may also restort to secret diplomacy and thereby make ‘secret
treaties’ with foreign powers and refuse to make them public in the national interest.
Now we turn to legislative powers of the President. Here he plays a quite important part which
becomes clear with the view of Potter that the Constitution puts him ‘at the beginning and end of the
legislative process’. The President is not merely the chief administrator and chief foreign policy-
maker and its executor, he is also the chief legislator though in a different way. He has the positive
power of initiating legislation through his messages containing information on the State of the Union.
It is within his authority to read the message personally in the Congress and thereby add a good deal
of weight to its contents by the charm of his physical presence, or get it read by his nominee. He can
call extraordinary session of the Congress to consider some urgent matter. He may also issue executive
orders (ordinances) and regulations having the force of law to be adopted by the Congress in time to
come.
The most effective weapon in the hands of the President is his veto, power. The Constitution requires
that all bills passed by the Congress (except constitutional amendment proposals) must be sent to the
President for his assent. If he appends his signatures, the bill becomes law and is placed on the
statute book. The President is given 10 days’ time for taking action (Sunday excluded) and he may
either give his assent or return it to the Congress with some recommendations. The veto of the President
is absolute in the sense that he may reject a bill without assigning any reason. But the veto is qualified
in the sense that if the Congress passes the same bill again with 2/3 majority, it becomes law without
being referred to him for his assent. He has pocket veto also which means that in case the session of
the Congress is adjourned within the period of 10 days and he takes no action on it, then the bill is

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