PLS 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Politico, Pork Barrel, Imperial Presidency
Document Summary
The executive us is useful case study for tension between realism vs idealism. People have large expectations of presidents, but the reality of it is they are bound to disappoint. Realism is more common in political outsiders: u(cid:272)h as peple (cid:449)ho do(cid:374)(cid:859)t ha(cid:448)e (cid:373)u(cid:272)h e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)e. The executive is policy implementer (i. e. , he executes policy) Unconstrained actors: no checks and balances. Presidential: harder to push legislation through. Parliamentary: no periods of divided government because the leader elects its board, higher level of party cohesiveness. Key differences: relationship between legislature and executive, electoral system. Presidents are elected separately, unlike in parliamentary. The president has an independent base of support. He has to be accountable both to the public and to the legislative branch. Most of the work done by legislatures is done by committees. Committees are a delegation of responsibility from the overall chamber: people who get assigned bills do most of the work, this is the lawmaking process.
