2.6 Expansion of Presidential Power

Hamilton's main claim is that “energy in the executive” is a leading feature of good government. A weak executive means weak execution of the laws, and a government that executes badly is a bad government in practice, whatever it looks like on paper.

Energy matters, he argues, for defending the country against foreign attack, for steady administration of the laws, for protecting property and for securing liberty against factions and disorder.

The first ingredient of energy is unity: one person, not a council. A single executive can act with “decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch.” A plural executive invites disagreement and delay, and it lets officials hide behind one another, so the public can't tell whom to blame. A single president is easier to hold accountable. Hamilton also says the executive needs enough time in office, secure pay and adequate powers.

Anti-Federalists feared the presidency would grow into a monarchy, especially with command of the army and no term limit. Hamilton's answer was that the president would be checked by elections, impeachment, the Senate's role in treaties and appointments, and Congress's control of money and war.

• Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory (1803) even though he doubted the Constitution clearly allowed it.
• Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in some areas, ordered a naval blockade and issued the Emancipation Proclamation as commander in chief.
• Theodore Roosevelt argued for a stewardship view: the president may do anything for the public good that the Constitution or laws don't forbid.
• Franklin Roosevelt led a vast expansion of the executive branch during the Great Depression and World War II and won four presidential elections.
• During the Cold War and after the September 11, 2001, attacks, presidents claimed broad powers over national security, intelligence and the use of force, often without a declaration of war.

George Washington stepped down after two terms, setting a tradition that lasted until Franklin Roosevelt won a third term in 1940 and a fourth in 1944. In response, Congress proposed the Twenty-Second Amendment in 1947, and it was ratified in 1951. It says no one can be elected president more than twice. Someone who serves more than two years of another president's term can be elected only once, so the most anyone can serve is about ten years.

Other limits on expansion include the War Powers Resolution (1973), court rulings such as Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) and United States v. Nixon (1974), and Congress's power of the purse.

This debate isn't settled and doesn't line up neatly with one party. Members of Congress often criticize broad presidential power when the other party holds the White House and defend it when their own does.