Political Dictionary Chapter 13 – The Presidency

 

Prepared by a Student

 

Chief of State – Term for the President as the ceremonial head of the United States, the symbol of all the people of the nation

           As President, is represented as a symbol of the people of the nation

 

Chief Executive – Term for the President as vested with the executive power of the United States

         As President, represents and holds the executive power in domestic and foreign affairs

 

Chief Administrator – term for the President as head of the administration of the Federal Government

          Serves as the director of the Federal Government that employs and operates as a machine in the nation

 

Chief Diplomat – Term for the President as the main architect of foreign policy and spokes person to other countries

          The president serves as a maker of policy of the United States in foreign affairs overseas and domestically

 

Commander in Chief – Term for the President as commander of the nation’s armed forces

          The president is formally given the title and power to be in charge of the military under his or her control

 

Chief Legislator – Term for the President as architect of public policy and the one who sets the agenda for Congress

         Regard to public policy, the President is given the power to shape legislation of Congress through initiating, suggesting, requesting, insisting, and demanding towards his/her agenda

 

Chief of Party – Term for the President as the leader of his or her political party

          The President is acknowledged as the leader of his/her political party as the head of the executive position. Through this position, party goals and influence is dependent and crucial to the rest of the governmental system.

 

Chief Citizen- Term for the President as the representative of the people, working for the public interest

           As expected from the public, the President acts and represents as a model citizen to appeal to the population without influence from private interests

 

Presidential Succession – Scheme by which a presidential vacancy is filled

          This is the order of officials whom are to be next in line of the presidency if the President is incapable of doing his/her duties. This was not originally in the Constitution until 1967, when it was formally addressed as the 25th Amendment

 

Presidential Succession Act of 1947- Law specifying the order of presidential succession following the Vice President

         This is the act that named the specific order of presidency if the President was seen unfit (or temporarily) or in an event that the Vice President was unavailable. (Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore, Members of Cabinet in order of appointment by Senate)  This formally became the 25th amendment of the Constitution.

 

 

Balance the Ticket- When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate who can strengthen his chance of being elected by virtue of certain ideological, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, or other characteristics

          This is a common cause of low vice presidential status in earlier presidential campaigns. One was selected only to appeal to greater amounts of people to support the Presidential candidate and not be of use after election.

 

Presidential Elector – A person elected by the voters to represent them in making a formal selection of the Vice President and President

          In Hamiltonian times, this was approved to filter out laymen votes that may be incapable of understanding the political government at the time.

 

Electoral Votes – Votes cast by electors in the electoral college

          These were to determine the next President. The one with the most votes became President, the second, became the Vice President. Soon this was stopped due to the 12th amendment to prevent party clashes in the executive branch and the election to repeat itself over.

 

Electoral College – Group of persons chosen in each State and the District of Columbia every four years who make a formal selection of the President and Vice President

          The group of Presidential electors chosen by the popular vote to choose which candidate to become the next President and Vice President.

 

Presidential Primary – An election in which a party’s voters (1) choose State party organization’s delegates to their party’s national convention, and/or (2) express a preference for their party’s presidential nomination

         An election within a party to determine candidates to run for President in the national convention, or to express preference to a potential presidential nominee within the party.

 

Winner-take-all – An almost obsolete system whereby a presidential aspirant who won the preference vote in a primary automatically won all the delegates chosen in the primary

          In primaries, when a potential presidential candidate wins preference of State chosen delegates, then all votes of the delegates become the vote of the candidate’s party.

 

Proportional Representation Rule – Rule applied in Democratic primaries whereby any candidate who wins at least 15 percent of the votes gets the number of State Democratic convention delegates based on his or her share of the primary vote

            In relation to Democratic primaries against winner-take-all primaries, was to represent a candidate based upon the however many votes he/she received, receives that number percent of delegate votes.

 

National Convention- meeting at which a party’s delegates vote to pick their presidential and vice-presidential candidates

        The convention of delegates, which have been chosen by State gather and accomplish three main goals of the party: name Presidential and Vice President nominees, unite factions within the party, and adopt a platform to sell to the public for support.

 

Platform – A political party’s formal statement of basic principles stands on major issues, and objectives for the campaign

          The sides and goals of a party that is created during the party’s convention. These statements are to include popular issues to appeal to the public and gain support for the party and thus to lead to Presidential success.

 

Keynote Address – Speech given at party conventions to set the tone for the convention and the campaign to come

          This address is given by the most accomplished orator and brings the spirit of the convention up and positive through a standard form of glorifying the party through the history, leaders and programs; condemning the opposition; relating to party unity; and ending with a pre-election victory conclusion.

 

District Plan – Proposal for choosing presidential electors by which two electors would be selected in each State according to the Statewide popular vote and the other electors would be selected separately in each of the State’s congressional districts

          Drawback – would not eliminate the unpopular candidate from winning in the electoral college, would rely on the number of votes in the district and the size of how it is drawn could lead to gerrymandering.

 

Proportional Plan – Proposal by which each presidential candidate would receive the same share of a state’s electoral vote as he or she received in the State’s popular vote

          Drawback – smaller states would be weighed the same as bigger states, foes not prevent the unpopular candidate from winning, and advocates more minor party influence through  appealing to bigger states and blurring the line of major parties

 

Direct Popular Election – Proposal to do away with the electoral college and allow the people to vote directly for the President and Vice President

      Drawback – smaller states would have little influence in a national vote, and be strenuous on presidential candidates to appeal to the nation as whole, state-by-state, and create voting fraud if the electoral process was removed to buffer the outcome.

 

Electorate - All of the people entitled to vote in a given election

         The public who is eligible to vote in elections. The citizens and individuals of the nation who create the basis and are the targets for presidential nominations and success.

 

National Bonus Plan – Proposal for electing a President by which the winner of the popular vote would receive a bonus of 102 electoral votes in addition to his or her State-based electoral college votes. If no one received at least 321 electoral votes, a run-off election would be held.

          Advocated by people who are against the electoral college, and creates the likelihood of the popular vote to be the winner in the electoral college.