The US Presidency and Democracy

The US presidency limits the formation of an ideal democracy more than it supports it. Recently, presidential power has grown so much that the United States is moving away from democracy altogether. In the case of President George W. Bush, the United States may almost just as well have been operating under a dictatorship, so out of control was the amount of power exercised by President Bush. He even recognized that (multiple times!).





When all three branches of government (executive, judicial and legislative) check and balance each other as they are supposed to, the presidency supports the formation of an ideal democracy. However, recently the presidency has found loopholes to avoid the checks and balances that are supposed to be provided by congress and the supreme court

Though the people elect the president, what the president does after that is mostly out of our control, and this is not in keeping with the rules of democracy. President G.W. Bush and the Patriot Act are prime examples of this. President Bush issued many signing statements, which he effectively used to interpret the meaning of laws to fit his own agenda. He also invoked a doctrine, the unified executive, to assert sole and unlimited control over the executive branch (Katznelson, 184). The Patriot Act, passed by congress after 9/11, gave the executive branch "wide latitude relatively unconstrained by congressional or judicial oversight" (Katznelson, 185). It deliberately did away with the checks and balances of the three branches of government that our fore fathers envisioned and therefore severely limits the formation of an ideal democracy.

The presidency was intended to provide checks and balance for the very democratic system of congress, but in fact, more often than not, congress ends up doing this for the presidency (when the existence of things like the Patriot Act don't get in the way).


The Presidency is not supporting the formation of an ideal democracy in the United States. Has the control the President exercises over our country gotten so out of control that the executive branch is harming our country more than it is helping it? 


At least President Obama recognizes his power and is attempting to use it to fix some of the mistakes of our former "Dictator-In-Chief," Mr. Bush. "Those seeking the presidency are far more motivated by ideological commitment and the desire to wield power than by a lust for wealth" (Katznelson, 181). America should examine which of these weighs more heavily on presidential candidates: ideological commitment or the desire to wield power. 


Sources: 
jaxhud. "YouTube- Bush Dictator ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3xfT0c99g&feature=related>.


Katznelson, Ira, Mark Kesselman, and Alan Draper. The politics of power: a critical introduction to American government. 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011. 2-12. Print.