Characteristics Of Presidential System Law Constitutional Administrative Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The Presidential government system practices the Single Executive concept, in which the head of State is additionally the head of state as well and the he is commonly referred to as the President. The Chief executive, the President is liable for the leadership of the government and therefore the state. Consequently the Chief executive is also independent from the legislative assembly, in contrast to the parliamentary system which practices the principle of Fusion of Power, where the Chief executive and his cabinet members are members of the legislative assembly. The United States of America, the Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia and Singapore are some examples of Presidential Governments.

System and Structure

The government structure of the United States of America is divided into three. There are the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary branch. United States Constitution is the idea of "checks and balances" among the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of American government. As an example, while the legislative which is the Congress has the power to create law, the executive which is the President can veto any legislation an act which, in turn, can be overridden by Congress. The President nominates judges to the nation’s highest judiciary authority which is the Supreme Court, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as "unconstitutional" any law passed by the Congress.

The Legislative branch is the United State Congress which is a branch of the federal government that makes the laws. It is a bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Constitution grants numerous powers to Congress. Recite in Article 1, Section 8, these include the powers to levy and collect taxes in which to coin money and regulate its value that provide for punishment for counterfeiting, establish post offices and roads, promote progress of science by issuing patents, create federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court, combat piracies and felonies, declare war and so forth. In order to make up the Congress, there is a House of Representatives. It consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. All 435 representatives serve a two year term. Also there is no limit on the number of representative may serve. In addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. There is one delegate each from the District of Columbia, Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population. There are currently 100 senators which is two from each of the 50 states, who each serve six-year terms. Approximately one third of the Senate stands for election every two years. Both, The House and Senate each have particular exclusive powers. For example, the Senate must approve of many important Presidential appointments, including cabinet officers, federal judges, department secretaries, U.S. military and naval officers, and ambassadors to foreign countries. All legislative bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. The approval of both chambers is required to pass any legislation, which then may only become law by being signed by the President or, if the President vetoes the bill, both houses of Congress then re-pass the bill, but by a two-thirds majority of each chamber, in which case the bill becomes law without the President's signature.

The Executive

The executive power is vested in the President of the United States, although power is often delegated to the Cabinet members and other officials. The President and Vice President are elected as running mates by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation in both houses of Congress.

The executive branch consists of the President and those to whom the President's powers are delegated. The President is the head of state and government, as well as the military commander-in-chief and chief diplomat. The President, according to the Constitution, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed", and "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution". The President presides over the executive branch of the federal government, an organization numbering about 5 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel and 600,000 postal service employees. The forty-fourth and current president is Barack Obama.

The President may sign legislation passed by Congress into law or may veto it, preventing it from becoming law unless two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to override the veto. The President may unilaterally sign treaties with foreign nations. However, ratification of international treaties requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate. The President may be impeached by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds majority in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". The President may not dissolve Congress or call special elections but does have the power to pardon, or release, criminals convicted of offenses against the federal government except in cases of impeachment, enact executive orders, and appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges.

The Vice President is the second-highest executive official in rank of the government. As first in the U.S. presidential line of succession, the Vice President becomes President upon the death, resignation, or removal of the President, which has happened nine times in U.S. history. Under the Constitution, the Vice President is President of the Senate. By virtue of this role, he or she is the head of the Senate. In that capacity, the Vice President is allowed to vote in the Senate, but only when necessary to break a tie vote. Pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the Vice President presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. While the Vice President's only constitutionally prescribed functions, aside from presidential succession, relate to his or her role as President of the Senate, the office is now commonly viewed as a member of the executive branch of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing scholars to dispute whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both.

The day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal laws is in the hands of the various federal executive departments, created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. The heads of the 15 departments, chosen by the President and approved with the "advice and consent" of the U.S. Senate, form a council of advisers generally known as the President's "Cabinet". In addition to departments, a number of staff organizations are grouped into the Executive Office of the President. These include the White House staff, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The employees in these United States government agencies are called federal civil servants.

There are also independent agencies such as the United States Postal Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Agency for International Development. In addition, there are government-owned corporations such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

The Judiciary

Where the Executive and Legislative branches are elected by the people, members of the Judicial Branch are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Judiciary explains and applies the laws. This branch does this by hearing and eventually making decisions on various legal cases. The judicial branch consists of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Judicial Center. According to the Constitution, "[t]he judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."

Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Judicial Branch, leaves Congress significant discretion to determine the shape and structure of the federal judiciary. Even the number of Supreme Court Justices is left to Congress — at times there have been as few as six, while the current number (nine, with one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices) has only been in place since 1869. The Constitution also grants Congress the power to establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court, and to that end Congress has established the United States district courts, which try most federal cases, and 13 United States courts of appeals, which review appealed district court cases.

Federal judges can only be removed through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate. Judges and justices serve no fixed term — they serve until their death, retirement, or conviction by the Senate. By design, this insulates them from the temporary passions of the public, and allows them to apply the law with only justice in mind, and not electoral or political concerns. Generally, Congress determines the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In some cases, however — such as in the example of a dispute between two or more U.S. states — the Constitution grants the Supreme Court original jurisdiction, an authority that cannot be stripped by Congress.

Federal courts enjoy the sole power to interpret the law, determine the constitutionality of the law, and apply it to individual cases. The courts, like Congress, can compel the production of evidence and testimony through the use of a subpoena. The inferior courts are constrained by the decisions of the Supreme Court — once the Supreme Court interprets a law, inferior courts must apply the Supreme Court's interpretation to the facts of a particular case.