1. Identify and explain the organization of the Executive
- The Executive consists of the President and his staff. The White House Office includes the President's lawyers, press secretary, appointments secretary, and other support persons. The Chief of Staff ensures that the president's legislative goals are thoroughly carried out. The Cabinet, Vice President, etc. advise the President.
2. Identify and provide an example of the powers of the Executive, both formal and informal.
- The President contains formal powers such as: Veto, commanding armed forces (deploying troops to Iraq), pardoning, appointing (Supreme Court Judges), make treaties, and convene in Congress.
The President also contains informal powers such as: issue executive orders, issue signing statements, create bureaucracy, and make legislative proposals.
3. Identify and explain how Executive shares powers with the Congress, Judiciary, and bureaucracy.
- While the President can veto bills, Congress can override the veto. The Judicial branch can always conduct Judicial View on the Executive and the bureaucracy can most directly influence the decisions of the President.
4.Discuss the implications of Executive sharing powers with each of the following: Congress, Judiciary, and bureaucracy.
- The implications of Executive sharing powers resolve back to checks and balances. The purpose of the Executive powers specifically are most important because they would become most powerful, due to the fact that it contains some of the most important people in the highest positions.
5. Discuss the functions that Executive performs.
- The Executive branch is most importantly responsible for executing and enforcing the law. The highest role of the Executive being the PResident, it is responsible for commanding the armed forces, and most of the powers that the president has, informal and formal. He is also responsible as the Commander in Chief and the Head of State.
6. Identify how the power of the Executive has/may evolve gradually.
- Presidential powers have, in fact, grown more powerful through time. A factor that contributes to this growth is the fact that the Executive branch is focused around one person, the President. The President is able to be the voice for the entire branch so the people pay attention to this branch the most. Consequently, the branch gains more and more power.
7. Identify how the power of the Executive has/may changes dramatically as a result of crisis.
- In the event of crisis, the Executive is mostly responsible. The President has all of the war powers so in the time of crisis, the President is able to overtly exercise those powers and expand them without as much criticism from the people due to the fact that they would be solely dependent on the President to act.
8. Identify and discuss the ties between the Executive and political parties.
- The President is always the leader of the political party that he is in. This being so, the main tie lies in reelection times. It is often a choice that the people face so the people in the same party support the president in the same party.
9. Identify and discuss the ties between the Executive and interest groups.
- The main tie between these two is support.The interest groups lobby in order to change influence policy making. Since these interest groups represent large percentages of the population, it is very important that the Executive do whats best for the interest groups.
10. Identify and discuss the ties between the Executive and media.
- The media influences the Executive by being the informant between the Executive and the People. The media is mostly responsible for the reliability of the Executive in the eyes of the People. The people then are the sole creators of the government, influencing the entire construct as a whole.