Discuss the key points, or any pros/cons, of the four policy instruments Howell describes in a president’s “Tool Chest.”
Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides the primary source of the President’s authority: “the Executive Power shall be vested in a President,” while Article I, which you will read later in Session 1.18, provides the Congress its authority: “all legislative power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress.” That apparent limitation (herein granted) placed on Congress is not similarly placed on the President. Howell states on page 14 of Presidential Power in the Modern Era that “modern presidents often exert power by setting public policy on their own and preventing Congress and the courts – and anyone else for that matter – from doing much about it.” He further states on page 13 the extent that presidents use ‘power tools of the presidency’ more now than they did a century ago, and act unilaterally, is what is distinctly modern about the modern presidency.
