This study will present an analysis and discussion of Presidential power and its limits in the government of the United States.
There are certain powers which are spelled out in the Constitution with respect to the President with more specificity than other powers. The creators of the Constitution wanted to make sure that the President had enough legal power to be able to serve effectively as the leader of the Executive branch and the initiator of domestic and foreign policy. On the other hand, they wanted to make sure that there were limitations on the powers of the President in order to prevent him from accruing to himself and the Executive branch so much power that the delicate balance of power (particularly with respect to the relationship between Congress and the President) was upset.
The creators of the Constitution, in determining the powers of the President, did not want such a weak leader that the government was paralyzed in a stalemate between the branches, but they also wanted to guard against the kind of autocracy which ruled over them from England and brought on the Revolutionary War and the ultimate establishment of the Constitution itself.
As de Boinville writes, the writers of the Constitution sought to alter the imbalances of the Articles of Confederation: "No question troubled the convention more than the powers and structure to be given the executive in the new government. The office did not exist under the Articles of Confederation, which placed the executive function in Congress" (de Boinville, 1982, p. 70). The fear and hatred of the executive authority of England made the debate over executive authority in the new American government intense to the very end of the Constitutional Convention.
The outcome of the debate is spelled out in Article II of the Constitution. Loosely, the Constitution declares first that "The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of Americ...