What keeps the president from becoming too powerful?

Answer 1

The Congress ( the Legislative Branch) and the Judicial Branch ( The federal court system) split and balance the powers of government with the President. The US Constitution is cleverly planned so that no one of the three branches of government controls the other and each limits or checks the powers of the other.

Answer 2

The President of the United States may, indeed, have too little power, now that there are so many people in the U.S. that it is possible to be elected President without a majority of the votes of the people, complicated by the fact that in today's world there is so little civility in Congress that Congressmen's individual power seems more important than the welfare of the country. Laws are passed by Congress, not the President, and until individual Congressmen figure out that they hurt the whole country by foisting their individual agendas upon us, there will not be much collective progress made.

Answer 3

This is a matter of opinion. My opinion is "no" - the President does not have too much power in foreign affairs. You know that he can only negotiate treaties with foreign government, not ratify them. He can sent troops to foreign countries, but he can not declare war and he can not fight for very long without Congressional financing, since he has no money he can spend without approval from Congress. He appoints the Secretary of State, but the Senate must approve his appointment.

Answer 4

yes

This answer requires a major edit as it was communicated to the contributors that single sentence answers may not even be helpful. Here the contributor uses one word, not even a sentence to support this view.

The US Constitution specifies all the powers the US President and the executive branch has in both national and international affairs. To date, changes to the US Constitution regarding presidential powers have not been made for quite a long time. The last major change actually increased the power of the US president and was upheld by the US Supreme Court.

There is no evidence that the powers granted to the US President by the Constitution and by the US Supreme Court are "too much". In direct response to the question, it's the opinion of some political scientists that the powers exercised by the President are equal to the task of enforcing the laws passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. No serious changes to this have been proffered, and it can be safely said the president does not have too much power in national affairs.

Answer 5

I would disagree and say that in some ways the president (US) is too powerful. This differs from country to country, and by company. The president is merely a figurehead in some countries, and in others like a dictator.

Ideally, the president is not too powerful and is balanced and restrained by the interests of the people. If the position of the president is too powerful, there will be those who will try to use the position for their own gains without regard to the expense of others.

In the US, the President is bound to uphold the constitution, and is restrained by the common interest and nationalism of people to hold their country's welfare to the highest degree. Both the Legislative and Judicial branch serve as counter-weights to the Executive branch that the President belongs to.

Answer 6

Yes. The 'executive order' is a tool that is often misused to improperly take powers that do not belong to the Executive branch or the office of the President.

Answer 7

The President does not have to much foreign and military powers. The Congress keeps the President in check, making it so that he does not have to much power.

Answer 8

yes, the president is too powerful.