Question 1

The Articles of Confederation created a strong executive that was too much like a monarch for the founding fathers' taste.

Accepted Answer

The Articles of Confederation purposefully created an exceptionally weak executive in order to avoid any similarities to the royal authority of the King of England.

Question 2

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention considered having a national legislature elect the president.

Accepted Answer

One of the Virginia Plan's resolutions, which the delegates used as a starting point, suggested that a president be chosen by the legislature for a single term of a certain length.

Question 3

Advocates of the progressive presidency argue that a strong modern presidency is necessary to overcome the intolerable inertia built into the Constitution.

Accepted Answer

Progressive intellectuals viewed the Constitution as a document designed to protect the economic interests of the propertied elite and that the presidency was the only part of the constitutional order that could break through the inertia.

Question 4

Jefferson initially feared that the Constitution had created:&#10;A) A chief executive that was too powerful.&#10;B) A chief executive that was too weak.&#10;C) A legislature that was too powerful.&#10;D) A judiciary that was undemocratic.

Accepted Answer

Jefferson found the presidency that the Constitution had created to be its most disturbing element, fearing that it could easily become monarchical.

Question 5

Which theory of the presidency views the president as too powerful and laments that the Constitution provided for such a strong executive?&#10;A) The potent presidency&#10;B) The princely presidency&#10;C) The perverted presidency&#10;D) The progressive presidency

Accepted Answer

Adherents of the princely presidency thesis agree with those of the potent presidency thesis that the Constitution created a powerful executive, but lament the adverse impact the presidency can have on democratic politics.

Question 6

Which theory of the presidency is consistent with the &#34;unitary executive&#34; doctrine?&#10;A) The potent presidency&#10;B) The princely presidency&#10;C) The perverted presidency&#10;D) The progressive presidency

Accepted Answer

Lawyers in the Reagan administration were proponents of the potent presidency thesis and, as they sought out more opportunities for presidential control of the bureaucracy, they began to develop the unitary executive theory, which held that the Constitution vested all executive authority in the presidency and therefore the legislature could not interfere with the president's power to direct the actions of officials in the executive branch.

Question 7

Cato was:&#10;A) The pen name under which The Federalist Papers were published.&#10;B) A member of the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention who advocated a strong executive.&#10;C) An Anti-Federalist pamphleteer who viewed the presidency of the Constitution as far too powerful.&#10;D) A famously corrupt Roman politician to which the Federalists compared the Anti-Federalists.

Accepted Answer

One of the most incisive members of the Anti-Federalists, ""Cato"" saw that the problem with the Constitution was not only that it gave presidents too many powers, but that the language restricting them and describing the president's responsibilities was too vague.

Question 8

How did President Wilson view the presidency of the Constitution?&#10;A) An archaic office constrained by checks and balances that made it difficult to govern&#10;B) An appropriately constrained office that ensured a republican form of government&#10;C) A writ for a the kind of &#34;unitary executive&#34; necessary for the success of a modern president&#10;D) A flawed document that gave the president almost monarchical powers

Accepted Answer

Wilson was an influential proponent of the progressive presidency thesis.

Question 9

Which of the following views of presidency posit disruptive, transformative changes that make the presidency of today fundamentally unlike the presidency envisioned by the framers and enacted by Washington or Jefferson?

A) The potent presidency
B) The perverted presidency
C) The progressive presidency
D) B and C

Accepted Answer

Both the perverted and progressive theses have different views on development than the potent and princely theses, which see development more as a natural evolution of the constitutional regime.

Question 10

Which of the following views of presidency posit disruptive, transformative changes that make the presidency of today fundamentally unlike the presidency envisioned by the framers and enacted by Washington or Jefferson?

A) The potent presidency
B) The perverted presidency
C) The progressive presidency
D) B and C

Accepted Answer

Those who see development as a continuation of the political architecture designed by the framers believe that the key components of the presidency today are the same as those that were part of the original constitutional order.

Deck 1: Envisioning the Presidency