The Expansion Of American Presidential Power During Post World War â…¡ To The 1970s

The United States is a typical separation of powers country, the state system has been constantly changing in 200 years. It is unprecedented that presidential power had expanded widely in executive power, legislative power, war power and foreign affairs and other aspects for a long time during the Post World War II to the 1970s.The power expansion has its deeper causes, and it also affects in long-term modern American society and international community. Therefore, it is necessary to study the U.S. political system and investigate the reasons, performances and impacts of many phenomena.This paper include three major parts.The first part focuses on the reasons for the expansion of presidential power. Firstly, the decentralization nature of U.S.A. Constitution planted a hidden danger for the power struggle. Secondly, the development of postwar American monopoly capitalism and the outbreak of the Cold War put forward new requirements to expansion of presidential power, and changes in American political thought after the war further contributed to this change. Moreover, the support from Congress, Courts and the advances of modern media technique are the important factors of the presidential power expansion.The second part elaborates on the contents of the expansion of presidential power. This section describes kinds of performances in all aspects of American presidential power expansion during the Post World War II to the 1970s, including the continued expansion of federal executive bodies and the expansion of executive power, legislative power, war power and foreign affairs power.The third part is about the analysis of impact for the expansion of presidential power. This part mainly discusses the impact of the expansion of presidential power on the administrative system, democracy, international stability and national policy from positive and negative aspect.