When the thirteen colonies rebelled against Great Britain, declared independence, and won the American Revolution, they were faced with a nearly insurmountable task – how does one create a new government absent a monarchy rooted in principles of democracy? Through the Charters of Freedom (meaning the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights) the Founding Fathers created the United States, devised a system checks and balances, and, within that, the position of the president of the United States. Many of the founders were fearful of giving one individual too much power, citing fears of tyranny and abuses of power. In fact, many of the debates at the Constitutional Convention (and between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists) focused on balancing power. John Jay famously wrote that the framers of the Constitution were remembered the “many instances in which governments vested solely in one man, or one body of men, had degenerated into tyrannies.” Benjamin Franklin and others even advocated for a “plural executive” fearing a single president may behave like a king.
Ultimately, the president served as one of the three branches of government and George Washington serving as the first president. In his inaugural addressing Washington appealed for unity, asked congress to abandon local prejudices, and he asked for party animosity to take a backseat. It is safe to say that party conflict and sectional conflict have always been a feature of American politics. Washington stepped down after serving two terms and the next President was John Adam. Adam’s presidency was fraught with conflict and near war with France and the hostile Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Adam’s was horribly discredited because of the Alien and Sedition Acts and accused of wanting to start war with France. The American presidency has arguably been a tenuously held position from its conception.
A core question in American political development is how the presidency, given the history outlined above, develops into the institution as it exists today? Relative to their earlier predecessors, contemporary presidents enjoy substantial advantages in policy-making vis-à-vis congress and the courts and spend considerable energy cultivating a relationship with the public. While this transition was gradual, the Progressive Movement plays a key role in developing the intellectual framework for the modern presidency.
For progressives, fear of a tyrannical executive was replaced by fear of a sclerotic legislature that was too beholden to special interests. In an article in 1887, then Professor Woodrow Wilson observed “It is getting harder to run a constitution than to frame one.” The solution for progressives was a more “active” presidency. The presidency, via delegations from congress, would be empowered to engage in policymaking through the creation of new executive branch agencies and departments. This “administrative state” would bring presidential policy-making into then novel areas like regulation of food and medicine, distribution of foreign aid and ensuring air transportation safety. In addition, progressives envisioned a presidency in which a president cultivated a base of popular support. This support would help the president “set” congress’s legislative agenda and give the president leverage in negotiations with its members.
Perhaps we are now in a post-progressive era? Over the last 20 years, the United States has experienced a drastic increase in both elite and mass political polarization. This polarization has rendered congress, at its best sclerotic and beholden to special interests, nearly inoperable. Into the breach, presidents of both parties have learned heavily into policy-making via executive action to govern. On this President’s Day, we see a president picking fights with congress over its constitutional spending powers, flaunting established law and asserting the power to override an amendment to the Constitution. Perhaps we are testing the limits of the Constitution and the construction of a democratic republic? As Benjamin Franklin famously said, the founders were striving for “a republic, if you can keep it.”
References:
1 Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1781 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), 549. Quote from John Jay’s address, quoted in The Creation of the American republic, 1776-1787.
2 Wilson, W. (1887). The Study of Administration. Political Science Quarterly, 2(2), 197–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/2139277