ORGANIZATION The Federal Government and the States of the United States have adopted the presidential system of executive organization, as distinguished from the cabinet or ministerial system found in England and most other countries. Under the presidential system there is an independent executive (president or governor) elected for a fixed term, and holding office during that term irrespective of whether he is or is not in political harmony with both legislative bodies or either of them. The members of the legislative bodies are elected at fixed times and for fixed terms, and no power is vested in the executive to dissolve them or to force elections at any other times than those fixed. The principle of separation of powers as applied in the United States precludes any member of the executive department from having a seat in a legislative body. Under this system the president or governor has real executive authority, and in all States but North Carolina has and exercises large power to control legislation by an executive veto. The presi dential system pre-supposes that the executive and the legislature may at times not be in political harmony. And in fact this is the case in many of the States and in the National system. In the
States of New York and New Jersey in recent years the governors have often been members of the Democratic party, while both houses of the State legislature have been controlled by the Republican Party. The power ordinarily vested in the legislative bodies to impeach and remove the executive is judicial in char acter, and efforts have only occasionally been made to employ the power of impeachment to remove an executive politically hostile to the two houses of the legislature. Such an effort was made, unsuccessfully, to remove Andrew Johnson from the presi dency of the United States.
The presidential system is more rigid than the ministerial plan of government, but it accords with the American doctrine of separation of powers. When the country faces a crisis, as during the Civil War and the World War, popular sentiment maintains political harmony between the President and Congress; and the executive tends to become the dominant factor in government. The presidential system of the United States in fact met the seri ous problems of the World War with less difficulty than did the ministerial systems of England and France.