The president's control over the National Executive Administra tion is primarily exercised through the heads of ten executive de partments, appointed by the president. These departments are: De partment of State ; Department of the Treasury ; Department of War ; Department of Justice ; Post Office Department ; Department of the Navy ; Department of the Interior ; Department of Agriculture; Department of Commerce ; Department of Labor. The heads of these departments are popularly termed a cabinet. They are responsible to the president, and the extent to which he meets with them and seeks their advice rests entirely in his discretion. In addition to these ten departments there are numerous boards and offices. The Federal executive organization under the president is not systemat ically organized, and plans for its reorganization have been under consideration for about thirty years. The need for such reorganiza tion has become increasingly apparent with the expansion of ac tivities of the National Government, and definite steps toward re organization have been taken through the passage by Congress in 1939 of an act (approved April 3, 1939) to provide for reorganizing agencies of the Government. This act vests authority in the president to submit reorganization plans to Congress before Jan. 21, 1941, the reorganization submitted by the president to take effect within 6o days after the submission of a plan unless the two houses by concurrent resolution disapprove of a reorganization plan. In the ex ercise of such authority the president submitted two reorganiza tion plans which were not disapproved by the two houses and which have taken effect. It is probable that further substantial changes in the Federal executive organization will be obtained under this act. The great mass of the lesser employees are selected under a merit sys tem, for whose conduct a Civil Service Commission was first created in 1883. (See Civil, SERVICE: United States.) The finances of the Na tional Government have been to a large extent systematized through the creation of a bureau of the budget in 1921, and through an im proved committee organization effected in the House of Repre sentatives in 1927 for the consideration of National appropriations and expenditures.
The president's influence in the National Government rests upon (I) powers granted him by the Constitution and by Federal statute, (2) political factors not found in constitutions or statutes, (3) the personality of the president.
The president's position as head of a large executive organization, with wide powers of appointment and removal, in itself makes the position important. The authority to veto legislation, subject to being overridden by two-thirds of the two houses, gives him a power that may be employed with effect. The authority to recommend measures to Congress is only of such value as may be given to it by the position and influence of the president making the recommenda tion. He is charged with the conduct of foreign relations, though here his authority is materially crippled by the requirement that two thirds of the senators concur in treaties.
But the president's political position is equally as important as his constitutional power. He is in effect the chieftain of his party.
He is also the one outstanding figure in American politics. His utter ances are news, and appear conspicuously in every newspaper in the country. These factors supplement his constitutional power, and make it possible for him to occupy a dominant position in the Federal system.
The possibilities of exercising power are great. The extent to which power is actually exercised depends upon the personality of the president and his capacity for political leadership. The influence of the presidency varies with the man who occupies the office and with the circumstances that surround him. In time of war, as under Lincoln and Wilson, the presidency dominates. Andrew Jackson dominated in a time of peace. James Bryce in i886 said that leaders are not chosen for the presidency, but real and dominant leadership has in recent times been exercised by Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The possibilities of the presidency were well expressed by Woodrow Wilson before he came to that office. "The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit ; and if Congress be overborne by him, it will be no fault of the makers of the Constitution,—it will be from no lack of constitutional powers on its part, but only because the President has the nation behind him, and Congress has not. He has no means of compelling Congress ex cept through public opinion." There has been an executive dominance by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the crisis of a depression, and this dominance has been aided by a wide power conferred upon the executive through the ap propriation of money to be apportioned and expended in the dis cretion of the executive. A continuance of the congressional plan of large lump-sum appropriations may do much to strengthen the president's power.
Little need be said about the vice-president. His chief official duty is to preside over the Senate, though he has substantially no in fluence in the deliberations of that body. The machinery for nomina ting party candidates ordinarily chooses a vice-presidential candidate almost purely on the basis of political expediency, and with little consideration of the fact that the vice-president may succeed to the presidency. Yet within the past forty years two vice-presidents— Theodore Roosevelt and Coolidge—succeeded to the presidency as a result of death, and then were elected to the office. The vice-president's influence is determined not as much by his position as by his per sonality and political leadership.