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Why is the president the chief legislature?In: US Presidents
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If this question relates to the President of the United States, the position has nothing to do with the legislature.
The Constitution sets up three branches of government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Each branch operates, essentially, independently, with some interconnections which allow "a system of checks and balances" by which they keep each other from becoming dominant. This is how the US system avoids despotism.
The President of the US is the "Chief Executive": his responsibilities, spelled out in the Constitution, are to execute the laws and to ensure their even application. Within the executive branch, the president can generate what might be considered "laws", executive orders, which do not have any legislative origin (ie, the pres writes them. They are in effect. Period, until a president removes them. I'm not even sure if there is precedent for the Judicial branch to review or nullify executive orders, but that's another subject!)
The Legislature, in the US, the House of Representatives and the Senate, write the bills which they then debate, modify, amend and vote on. When those bills have passed both houses, they are presented to the President of the US, who has the option of vetoing them, currently on an all-or-nothing basis. (The "line item veto" so often referred to in the current campaign platforms is a change to the Constitution which is proposed to allow the president to veto individual parts of a bill, and would require a constitutional convention to put into place. This would make the president very much a part of the legislative process, where he now is relatively peripheral to the process.) By his veto, the President can stop a bill from becoming law...temporarily. There are mechanisms built into the Constitution which allow an override of a Presidential veto by the legislative branch.
Other checks-and-balances mechanisms include the Legislative branches ability to try and impeach a sitting president or a sitting judge, and the Supreme Court's ability to rule on the constitutionality of a law produced by the legislative branch and signed by the President.
The Constitution sets up three branches of government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Each branch operates, essentially, independently, with some interconnections which allow "a system of checks and balances" by which they keep each other from becoming dominant. This is how the US system avoids despotism.
The President of the US is the "Chief Executive": his responsibilities, spelled out in the Constitution, are to execute the laws and to ensure their even application. Within the executive branch, the president can generate what might be considered "laws", executive orders, which do not have any legislative origin (ie, the pres writes them. They are in effect. Period, until a president removes them. I'm not even sure if there is precedent for the Judicial branch to review or nullify executive orders, but that's another subject!)
The Legislature, in the US, the House of Representatives and the Senate, write the bills which they then debate, modify, amend and vote on. When those bills have passed both houses, they are presented to the President of the US, who has the option of vetoing them, currently on an all-or-nothing basis. (The "line item veto" so often referred to in the current campaign platforms is a change to the Constitution which is proposed to allow the president to veto individual parts of a bill, and would require a constitutional convention to put into place. This would make the president very much a part of the legislative process, where he now is relatively peripheral to the process.) By his veto, the President can stop a bill from becoming law...temporarily. There are mechanisms built into the Constitution which allow an override of a Presidential veto by the legislative branch.
Other checks-and-balances mechanisms include the Legislative branches ability to try and impeach a sitting president or a sitting judge, and the Supreme Court's ability to rule on the constitutionality of a law produced by the legislative branch and signed by the President.
First answer by Emdrgreg. Last edit by Emdrgreg. Contributor trust: 1930 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 8 [recommend question].
- Legislature (in government, law)
- Chief (in anthropology, government)
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