Abstract

With social and economic development, the president plays an important role in American social and political life, along with the expansion of presidential power. The expansion of the power for American President is multifaceted, and it is helpful for us to know the “separation of three powers” of America. The President of the United States holds real power and the power is constantly expanding. In order to realize the expansion of the power of the American President and this expansion brought us the impact from an analysis of horizontal and historical profiles of presidential power, which is of great help to understand the separation of political powers in the United States.

The Constitution of 1787 stipulated the separation of powers in legislatures, executive and judicial branches and the separation of powers between federal and state government. So what is the purpose of separation of powers? The purpose of it is the decentralization of powers. But the restriction itself is not the purpose, the spirit of separation of powers is balanced, that is, the separation of powers. In over two hundred years history of the United States, the separation of the three powers, the development of mutual checks and balances is actually unbalanced, and sometimes it was serious. In general, before the end of the nineteenth century, Congress dominated political life; since the ending of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the president had gradually become the center of powers of the federal government and gained priority over the other two branches.

Key words: the United States; presidential power; expansion; American politics; checks and balances

Contents

摘要

Abstract

I.-Introduction-5

II.-The Basic Power of the United States President-7

2.1   President as the head of state-7

2.2   President as the head of government-7

2.3   President’s legislative power-7

2.4   The president‘s diplomatic and military powers-8

2.5   The president or the natural leader of the party can use his own prestige to enhance the status of the party or to help the party campaign-8

III.-The US presidential power changes in five historical periods-8

IV.-The performance of the current expansion of US presidential power-10

V.-The reasons for the expansion of US presidential power-15

4.1   The distribution of constitutional power characteristics-16

4.2   The decay of the power of the Congress-16

4.3  The support of the court-17

4.4   The needs of social development-17

4.5   The influence of public opinion-18

VI.-Reflections on the Expansion of American Presidential Power after 1933-18

VII.-Conclusion

References

Acknowledgements