The Reference Shelf

Are presidents public servants, with powers limited and prescribed to prevent tyranny? Or should a president be allowed near complete power in order to push through their agenda? This is the central question behind concepts of presidential authority, which have been changing and evolving since the founding of the country. The twenty-first century has been an era in which executives have frequently bypassed Congress to enact policy, sometimes stretching the boundaries of established limits on presidential power, and this has brought presidential powers into the spotlight of the national debate. With controversial issues like presidential immunity, the pardon power, and presidential authority to conduct military operations, many constitutional scholars have suggested that the United States is in the midst of a crisis of presidential power that reveals weaknesses in the nation’s democratic framework and a growing willingness to abandon democracy.