Relationship Essay: Presidency Domestic And Foreign Powers

Presidency Domestic and Foreign Powers Widalvasky argues that presidents tend to be more focused on foreign affairs rather than domestic affairs. This claim stems from the fact that one of the enumerated power the constitution grants to the President in to negotiate treaties. Throughout the course of history, we have seen presidents become more involved in domestic affairs, particularly during time of crisis. Presidents like Lincoln and FDR. In fact the United States can be said to have “Two Presidencies” , the domestic presidency and the foreign presidency. These two have different levels of powers and varies on how the president can act. However, they have also changed the way they manage foreign affairs. Today, it is true that the president is much more present in domestic affairs than previous office holders. However, there still seems to be a tendency of the president being more focused and active on foreign affairs. One could argue that today the United States has “two presidencies”. These presidencies being the domestic presidency and the foreign presidency. The domestic presidency does not allow the president to be as active as other branches of government do so when it comes to domestic affairs. The foreign presidency is where the president excels, the president has more leniency to exert more power in foreign affairs. The reason presidents tend to be more active in the foreign presidency all has to due with the constitution and the separation of powers. The constitution serves as a step by step guidebook that tells all branches of government explicitly what powers they are entitled to and from these we have inferred the implicit powers. Found in Article 2 of the constitution, the executive branch, explicitly expresses the powers of the president. The president first and foremost serves as the commander-in-chief, he grants pardons, appoints federal judges with advice and consent of the senate, negotiate treaties with advice and consent of the senate, and to appoint ambassadors. Because the framers did not give the president to make legislation, rather vested the power of executing the law. The president faces a lot more roadblock when it comes to domestic affairs. The president because of separation of powers cannot write legislation themselves. However, throughout the course of history the president has been able to make his presence more prominent when it comes to domestic affairs. This expansion of power on domestic affairs exerted by the presidency arises mostly when the country is in a time of crisis. At times even when the country is not facing times of crisis. One could argue that the expansion of domestic power of behalf of the president has started to expand as early the Jeffersonian era. He overstepped the president’s domestic power by purchasing what became known as the Louisiana purchase. Today domestic power exerted by the president is a lot more extensive. The president according to the constitution is not allowed to write legislation. That power is reserved for congress, and while the president has the power of the veto to stop legislation or to have congress write legislation that appeal to the executive office. The president himself does not have the power to write legislation. However, he now has the power to enact executive orders. These are essentially pieces of legislation that are only implemented during that president’s term. An example of these would be executive order 9066 signed …show more content…
This is still true today. However, the presidency can be divided into two, the domestic and the foreign presidency. Because the president has less power vested in him by the constitution to act domestically, there does seem to be more emphasis on foreign affairs. Presidents tend to be more focused on foreign affairs today because there is more freedom in exercising their executive power. And even when there is a check on their power implemented by the constitution the president finds a way around it. By calling military action as “conflicts” instead of war, or by engaging on executive agreements rather than treaties. While the president throughout the course of history has become more involved in domestic affairs, there still seem to be more focus on foreign affairs. This is due to the fact that in foreign affairs the president is able to exercise his executive power more