The Presidential Office and the President as Party Leader

A perceptive student of the Presidency, observing the gaps between presidential policy and their congressional incidence, has stated that "the steady climb of the Presidency in the matter of public policy leadership is one of the patent political truths of the century. This rise has not been accompanied by a corresponding expansion of presidential authority as a party leader."' This statement about the gap between these two roles of the President may be taken as not untypical of relationships among other presidential roles. It has been said many times, and cogently reiterated recently by Louis Brownlow2 and Clinton Rossiter, a that the Presidency is a position with many roles. As testimony to the expansion of presidental roles, Brownlow, writing in 1949, delineated some seven roles, and Rossiter, writing in 1956, described some nine. It is in terms of the dynamics of these roles that the Presidency can be best understood. Presidential roles are at once conflicting and complementary. The power of the President in foreign relations has given weight to the President's recommendations as an economic architect, viz., recent policies for the tightening of credit. Recommendations on such domestic matters as school aid are bolstered by claiming their efficacy in our rivalry with Russia. The President's role as communicator with the public adds force to his role in foreign affairs, and vice versa. When the President speaks as a legislative leader his voice is heard more fully because he has the weapons to exert influence over his party. The weaving of the strengths in the various roles is one of the tests of the political skills of a President.' The President who can skillfully employ influence derived in one role to fortify another zone of presidential competence demonstrates a quality indispensable to broad-gauge leadership. An expanding office is characterized by role-conflicts. Our recent Presidents have exhibited many such instances. Thus, for example, President Roosevelt's proposals