How Much Power Does the President Have?

American History Hit

History Hit

History, America

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever since independence, a question has hovered over the government of the United States. How much power should the President have? Not too much, lest they become a monarch. But not too little, they are elected to do a job and that job must be done.

In this episode of American History Hit, Don is joined once again by Professor of Political Science, Graham G Dodds. Graham is author of 'The Unitary Presidency' and, together, he and Don discuss the power of the President.

Can they commit a crime? How has the unitary executive been used in domestic, and foreign, spaces? And where was this theory born - with the Constitution, Hamilton, Reagan or Bush?

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The ship's wooden hull scrapes against the jagged rock. To port, sirens beckon, singing
0:08.0	their plaintive invitations to the deep. To starboard, steep cliffs loom high, shedding boulders
0:14.8	that crash into the raging sea. We're in the midst of a tempest. In the chaos, no one can tell quite which way is safe.
0:23.6	Below deck, passengers huddle and terror, hearing the timbers split and splinter.
0:28.6	On deck, others gazed toward a dark horizon entranced by those ethereal voices.
0:33.6	The crew, meanwhile, drenched and weary, cares only for its salvation, for bringing this battered ship home to warmth, to light, to supper.
0:44.3	But the wheel stands on the bridge in the captain's hands.
0:49.3	And though there are systems to guide and temper him, in truth, the course we sail is his alone.
1:07.3	Good day, it's Don Wilden, and this is American History Hit.
1:22.5	247 years ago, in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress of the United States, coming into force in 1781.
1:29.1	Very broadly, the Articles of Confederation set severe limitations on the role and effectiveness of the federal government.
1:33.9	Consequently, the articles would be replaced, eventually, by the U.S. Constitution.
1:38.4	One of those limitations was an intentionally weak chief executive.
1:43.3	Any president would serve only a single year term and would, in effect, answer to Congress.
1:45.4	After having undertaken a drawn-out and difficult war to break away from monarchy overseas, the last thing our founders
1:50.4	wanted was to reconstitute our own all-powerful leader who could do as they pleased. Well,
1:55.9	times have certainly changed. The process of concentrating more and more power in the office of the presidency
2:01.9	started with Alexander Hamilton, calling for it in Federalist Paper No. 70, then saw Abraham Lincoln
2:08.3	flexing the great muscle of his office during the Civil War, and throughout most presidencies of
2:13.4	the 20th century, the power of the office has only increased. In Federalist number 70,
2:19.5	Hamilton coined the term unitary executive, distinguishing the presidency as a sole figure,
2:25.0	embodying an entire branch of U.S. government, the executive branch, as opposed to the hundreds
	...

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