A gap separates the President’s formal paper powers from his real accumulated powers

Evidence

As to whether there is imperative necessity for such powers, it is relevant to note the gap that exists between the President’s paper powers and his real powers. The Constitution does not disclose the measure of the actual controls wielded by the modern presidential office. That instrument must be understood as an Eighteenth-Century sketch of a government hoped for, not as a blueprint of the Government that is. Vast accretions of federal power, eroded from that reserved by the States, have magnified the scope of presidential activity. Subtle shifts take place in the centers of real power that do not show on the face of the Constitution. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2865

Categorization

• XREF: Paper-powers vs real-powers gap connects to the constitutional-law thread on separation of powers and to how written rules lag institutional practice. — connects to: Unsanctioned executive power, if it exists, knows no legal limits — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2863; Presidential authority varies in strength across three zones defined by congressional disjunction — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2851; The party system gives presidents extraconstitutional control over other branches — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2868 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces the analytic distinction between constitutional paper powers and exercised real powers via informal accretion.

Broader Connections

• Official blueprints overstate power’s consistency and conceal its cracks #expands (0.85) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 954
• The party system gives presidents extraconstitutional control over other branches #exemplifies (0.82) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2868
• Presidential command of public opinion weakens the checking effect of the other branches #exemplifies (0.75) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2867
• The government conceded Congress may regulate the President’s executive procedures #exemplifies (0.72) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2938
• Unofficial power makes its loss invisible even to political insiders #exemplifies (0.70) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4658