AP Political Science

Mr. Schaber AP Political Science Wilson Ch. 14 - The Presidency

Presidents and Prime Ministers 1) The popularly elected president is an ______invention. (368)

2) How long does a prime minister in a parliamentary system stay in power? (368)

3) True / False - Most presidents in U.S. history were members of Congress just before becoming president. (369)

4) Who usually gets chosen (by the president) as heads of cabinet-level departments in the U.S.? (369)

5) A prime minister's party (or coalition) ______has a majority in parliament, while a president's party (in the U.S.) ______does not have a congressional majority. (370)

Divided Government 6) Define 'divided government.' (370)

7) Define 'unified government.' (370)

8) What does the word 'gridlock' mean (in government terms). (371)

9) How do divided governments do compared to unified governments in regards to passing important laws, conducting important investigations, and ratifying significant treaties? (371)

10) Who has less ability to decide what laws get passed - a U.S. president or a British prime minister? (371)

11) Why is gridlock a necessary consequence of a system of representative democracy? (372)

The Evolution of the Presidency 12) True / False - The Founders all agreed about how to create the office of U.S. president. (372)

13) What were the issues discussed by the Founders in regards to the creation of the U.S. presidency? (372-373) 14) What is the electoral college? (373)

15) What amendment to the Constitution limited the U.S. president to two terms in office? (373)

16) True / False - The office of U.S. president was kept simple and modest during the years of the 'First Presidents.' (374-375)

17) How did Andrew Jackson change the U.S. presidency? (375-376)

18) What happened with Congress at the end of Andrew Jackson's second term? How long did this situation last? (377)

19) Who was the only president during this time of congressional dominance that broke new ground for presidential power? What did he do? (378)

20) Our popular conception of the president as the ______figure of national government, devising a ______program and ______a large staff of advisers, is very much a product of the ______era and of the ______role of government. (378)

21) Since the ______the presidency has been ______no matter who occupied the office and whether or not there was a ______. (378)

The Powers of the President 22) What article of the Constitution deals mostly with the power of the president? (379)

23) What are some of the powers the president alone can exercise? (379)

24) What are two powers the president shares with the Senate? (379)

25) What power does the president share with Congress as a whole? (379)

26) The president's authority as commander-in-chief has grown to encompass not simply the direction of the ______forces, but also the management of the ______and the direction of ______affairs as well. (379-380) 27) Where is the greatest source of presidential power found? (380)

The Office of the President 28) Where do the president's closest assistants have offices? (381)

29) When a president's subordinates report to him through a chain of command led by the chief of staff it is known as a ______structure. (381)

30) A ______structure is when several of the president's assistants report directly to him. (381)

31) When several subordinates, cabinet officers, and committees report directly to the president on different matters it is an ______structure. (381)

32) Typically, where are senior White House staff members drawn from? (383)

33) Agencies in the Executive Office report directly to the president but are not located in the White House. What is perhaps the most important agency in the Executive Office? (383)

34) What is (the president's) 'cabinet?' (384)

35) What is a great advantage the president has in making appointments to the Senate? (385)

Who Gets Appointed 36) True / False - The president knows all of the people he appoints to government positions. (385)

37) Of late a tendency has developed for presidents to place in their ______people known for their ______or administrative ______rather than for their political following. (386-387)

Presidential Character 38) Every president brings to the White House a distinctive ______, which affects the way the White House is organized and run. (388)

The Power to Persuade 39) The president must rely heavily on ______if he is to accomplish much. (390)

40) The president's persuasive powers are aimed at three audiences. What are they? (390) a)

41) Presidents have made fewer and fewer ______remarks in the years since Franklin ______held office and have instead relied more and more on ______speeches from which political ______can be ______in advance. (390)

42) What is the 'bully pulpit?' (390)

43) It is true that a winning president will find that his party's strength in Congress ______. (391)

44) True / False - A president's popularity can have a big effect on how much of his program(s) Congress passes. (391)

45) When does a president's popularity tend to be the highest? (394)

The Power to Say No 46) What is meant by a president's 'veto message?' (394)

47) What is a 'pocket veto?' (394)

48) What happens to a bill that is not signed or vetoed within ten days while Congress is still in session? (395)

49) What is a 'line-item veto?' (395)

50) True /False - Presidents of the United States have line-item veto power. (395)

51) What has the Supreme Court said about 'executive privilege?' (396)

52) Federal courts have upheld the rule that the ______must spend, without delay for policy reasons, money that ______has appropriated. (397)

The President's Program 53) There are basically two ways for a president to develop a program. What are they? (397) a)

b) 54) What are four of the major constraints on a president's ability to plan a successful program? (398) a)

55) What two key issues has every president in recent decades been forced to devote much of his time to? (399) a)

56) True / False - Most presidents since 1928 have tried to change the structure of the executive department (their staffs, departments, and agencies) in one way or another. (400)

57) True / False - Congress has the power of legislative veto. (400)

Presidential Transition 58) About what percentage of presidents since George Washington have been elected to a second term? (401)

59) Through 2006, how many times has a vice president become president because of the death of his predecessor? (401)

60) What is the only official task of the vice president? (401)

61) Absent of a crisis, the vice president is, at best, only an ______to the president. (402)

62) According to the Twenty-fifth Amendment, what happens if the president declares that he is unable to perform the duties of his office? (402)

63) Also according to the Twenty-fifth Amendment, what does the vice president do when the president (his predecessor) dies or resigns? (402)

64) There is one other way - besides death, disability, or resignation - by which a president can leave office before his term expires, and that is by ______. (403) 65) What is impeachment, and how does the process work? (403)

66) How many presidents have been brought up on impeachment charges in U.S. history? How many were convicted by the Senate? (403)

67) President ______would surely have been impeached and removed from office, but he ______first. (403)

68) What is meant by a 'lame duck' politician? (404)

How Powerful Is The President? 69) What are three of the rules of thumb presidents use to deal with their political problems, and what does each rule mean? (406) a)