Strength of America’s Executive Branch
One of the major strengths of the executive branch in the U.S. is its power rotation. The president as ahead of the executive branch has several terms he or she may serve limited to two four-year terms. Over the years, the history of the United States witnessed 45 presidents, which may be a sign of a healthy democracy. Such limitation, according to Cărăuşan (2015), is imposed to “avoid the temptation to perpetuate the occupation of office by the same person as President” (p. 72). The principle of power turnover is aimed to avoid political stagnation in the rapidly changing landscape of global and domestic policy. Many president-ruled countries that claim to uphold the concept of democracy seem to violate that principle, which often results in a continuation of unsuccessful policies and bureaucratization of the state executive branch. The influx of new ideas is critical for the country’s development and the U.S. system of power replacement seems to keep the flow running.
Weakness of America’s Executive Branch
Despite the stability of the United States’ executive system, the branch also has certain vulnerabilities. One of them is the poor level of agreement between the executive and legislative branches, which results in over-empowerment of the former. Price (2016) argues that sometimes the White House is hard to control when it falls under the influence of a particular party. This problem may arise from the mechanism, which allows overriding congress decisions on a range of important matters using various tools including presidential memoranda, executive orders, and recess appointments. Such methods were used by Obama’s office during the “We Can’t-Wait” campaign where he progressively implemented a range of policies, some of which were not approved by many in congress. These vulnerabilities endanger the state to power abuse and undermine the functioning of the executive branch as an effective mechanism of enforcement.
Maintaining the Strength of the Executive Branch
One of the strategies to uphold the power rotation may be to eliminate the weakness of the twenty-second amendment. This amendment defines the term limit for each president not letting him or her be elected three times. However, it allows the president elected two times to run for the vice-presidency and then reinstate for the presidential term (Coenen, 2015). Even if the actual chance of such occurrence is small, the theoretical possibility still exists. When it comes to the nation’s safety from domestic power abuse and improper control, even the smallest discrepancies in the constitution might be used against the citizens of the U.S. That vulnerability of the constitution may challenge democratic principles and undermine power turnover. Thus, tackling this issue will allow the latter to serve the country’s development further.
Correcting the Weakness of the Executive Branch
The above-mentioned weakness may be eliminated by restoring the power balance between the executive and legislative branches. Price (2016) suggests that this vulnerability can diminish the efforts of both in serving the interests of U.S. citizens. The dominance of one party over the administrative decisions and giving too many leverages to a small group may have grave consequences. Narrowing down the possibilities of the president’s administration to dominate congress’ opinion may help ensure that important decisions are made with the consent of both parties. Moreover, it may stabilize the decision-making process within the branch and make it more transparent.
References
Cărăuşan, M. (2015). The executive branch: The Chief of State. Acta Universitatis Danubius: Juridica, 11(1), 66-76.
Coenen, D. T. (2015). Two-time presidents and the vice-presidency. Boston College Law Review, 56(4), 1287-1344.
Price, D. E. (2016). Congressional-executive balance in an era of congressional dysfunction. Political Science & Politics, 49(3), 485-489. Web.