Discussion 2: Presidential Powers

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Discussion 2: Presidential Powers

According to Schaefer (2021), based on Richard Neustadt’s words, the power of the presidency lies more in its ability to convince than in its ability to command. In contrast to other decision-makers, the president’s primary objective is to strike a balance between the power he wields and the support he receives from the public and the rest of civil society. Approval and poll ratings towards the president significantly impact the president’s decision-making since they build the president’s overall perception of his ability to rule and his performance.

Moreover, it is true that Congress serves as a significant check on the executive branch and can either help or hinder the president and his party. Still, numerous studies and real-world examples show that the public also plays a major role in if or not the president is successful in achieving his objectives. According to the research center, due to the president’s poor actions and the public’s growing lack of faith in him, it becomes more difficult to find solutions to the nation’s problems and to win the public’s participation in those efforts. Besides, due to the mistrust, people appear to be rebelling against government efforts, holding assemblies, and engaging in other sociopolitical activities that would hamper the president’s goals and programs to demonstrate the people’s sovereign power in a display of democratic respect for the rule of law. Public opinion polls influence political decisions. Opinion polls aim to reflect the views of the people they study by carrying out several questions and then generalizing in the form of ratios or within confidence intervals (Muller et al., 2020). Therefore, public opinion polls are very suitable for discussing the president’s mandate since many people can express their needs which they would like the president to fulfill.

References

Müller, M., Schneider, M., Salathé, M., & Vayena, E. (2020). Assessing public opinion on CRISPR-Cas9: combining crowdsourcing and deep learning. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(8), e17830.

Schaefer, T. M. (2021). Introduction: Trump’s Presidency; Neustadt’s Model. Presidential Power Meets the Art of the Deal (pp. 1-10). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.