Imperial Presidency and George W. Bush

Arthur Schlesinger coined in his book The Imperial Presidency a term that has been used ever since to describe the rising power of the executive branch in American politics, specifically that of the President over all other positions. Schlesinger wrote, “This process of appropriation [of powers reserved by the Constitution and by long historical practice to Congress, to the President] took place in both foreign and domestic affairs….the circumstances of an increasingly perilous world as well as of an increasingly interdependent economy and society seemed to compel a larger concentration of authority.” It is important to add that Schlesinger saw shift to be just as much the fault of Congressional abdication as Presidential usurpation.

This process began as early as F.D.R. and his taking more power with domestic affairs and most key is the power seized, correctly and wielded thusly so, by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile crisis. “For the missile crisis was unique in the postwar years in that it really combined all those pressure of threat, secrecy and time that the foreign policy establishment had claims as characteristic of decisions in the nuclear age.”

This excellent use of Presidential power, and bypassing legislative consultation in order to deal with a real threat unfortunately gave later President’s the right to do the same with matter that should have been looked at more closely by Congress. The Presidency started to gobble up power that didn’t belong to it, using the Cuban Missile Crisis as its seal of approval.

The Imperial Presidency reached its height with Richard Nixon, who so blatantly tried to assume more and more Presidential power, and his feeling of entitlement is essentially what led to the Watergate Scandal.

The question then remains however, how is our current President influencing the view of the Imperial Presidency? Is he wielding the power that has been acquired by the Office he currently holds only to contain and address real threats to the American public? Or is he taking them to far? It is my opinion that this President has done nothing but move this country in the wrong direction, taking the baby steps required to establish a totalitarian state.

As was noted in Schlesinger’s article, this is as much about Congressional abdication as Presidential usurpation. The prime example of this in our current President’s terms of office is the passing and renewal of the USA Patriot Act.