The Imperial Presidency in 20the century United States Essay Example for Free

The Imperial Presidency in 20the century United States Essay The term Imperial Presidency is a contemporary description of the United States Presidency that started in the 1960s. The term inspired historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr. to write a book with a similar title in 1973. The term and the book were grounded on the same motives, primarily is for the rising issue regarding the presidents political outrage, the second is the presidents violation of the constitution in terms of power limitations. The presidency is dubbed as imperial if ever a particular president exercises power beyond what is written and allowed by the constitution. The responsibility of the president to the congress, supreme court, the media and the citizens have been modified slowly through the years. Hence, what is seen to be in a standard context is antithetic to what was originally legislated. The twentieth century was the advent of drastic change in American Presidency and history. This became more concrete upon Theodore Roosevelts deployment of forces to the Caribbean Islands subsequently establishing a new form of government with the absence of the congress blessing. The occupation was covered countries such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Honduras and Panama. The year 1927 saw another unconstitutional practice of the presidency when then U. S president Calvin Coolidge dispatched 5000 soldiers for another occupation in the country of Nicaragua. Coolidge was deemed as a rigid constructionist when it comes to other concerns. Franklin Roosevelts entrancing presidency in the midst of the Great Depression and the second World War paved the way for some major changes in the position. The rise of electronic media, the establishment of new agencies as part of the administrations platform, a diverse group of advisors and the Executive Office of the President gave life to the new context of presidency, thus, creating a huge transmutation. In 1939, President Roosevelts declaration of the limited national emergency gained him additional powers. A couple of years later, Roosevelt then affirmed that America was in a state of unlimited national emergency, which obviously earned him more authority. The two declarations gave the president the privilege to prehend property, organize and control means of production, initiate martial law, control over transportation and communication as well as institute totalitarian will over private endeavor and the populace. The end of World War II continuously gave president Harry Truman major influences, thus, unconstitutionally manipulating the congress once again by the exaggeration on the aid requirements of Greece and Turkey in his Truman Doctrine. 1950 saw the congress was again taken for granted when president Truman sent U. S forces to participate in the Korean War. Truman was frightened by the national scale revolt of the steel industry. He believed that such revolt may result to a disability of the military to fight in the Korean War. He decreed that the steel companies be controlled by the secretary of commerce, again without the permission of the congress. This act was contested by the supreme court, stating that the president was unconstitutional and the Commander-in-Chief authority of the president does not apply on domestic concerns. The Truman administration drafted additional presidential treaties which provided more authority to the president and diminished the congress sovereignty, which included intervention of international affairs. In the 1960s, the Johnson government upholded the trashing of the congress by sending soldiers to the Dominican Republic and Vietnam. The Vietnam war only tallied death tolls equal to that of the Civil and World Wars. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution saw the transfer of military powers from the congress to the president. The succeeding decade bequeathed no change on the superiority complex of a United States President as Richard Nixon as the bloodbath in Vietnam continued. Nixons rule also dug the private lives of the Americans through espionage and intelligence which led to his overthrow. The invasion of Panama under Bush command offered more maltreatment to the congress as well as the Gulf war in the 90s. His successor Bill Clinton only practiced imperialism through the affair with Whitehouse intern Monica Lewinsky. Current president George W. Bush implemented Imperial Presidency by waging war with Iraq and Afghanistan. Works Cited Schlesinger, Arthur M. , Jr. , The Imperial Presidency. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973 Rudalevige, Andrew. . The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. Wolfensberger, Donald R. â€Å"The Return of the Imperial Presidency? † Wilson Quarterly. 26:2 (2002) p. 37 Stolberg, Sheryl Gay and Jeff Zeleny, Bush Vetoes Bill Tying Iraq Fund to Exit New York Times, 1 May, 2007 Barilleaux, Ryan J. and Mary E. Stuckey. Leadership and the Bush Presidency: Prudence or Drift in an Era of Change. New York: Praeger. 1992. Feingold, Henry M. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938–1945. New Jersey: New Brunswick, 1970 Bernstein, Barton J. (1970). Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration, Second edition, Ed. Franklin Watts