The party system gives presidents extraconstitutional control over other branches

Evidence

Moreover, rise of the party system has made a significant extraconstitutional supplement to real executive power. No appraisal of his necessities is realistic which overlooks that he heads a political system as well as a legal system. Party loyalties and interests, sometimes more binding than law, extend his effective control into branches of government other than his own and he often may win, as a political leader, what he cannot command under the Constitution. Indeed, Woodrow Wilson, cam enting on the President as leader both of his party and of the Nation, observed, “If he rightly interpret the national thought and boldly insist upon it, he Is irresistible … . His office is anything he has the sagacity and force to make it.” I cannot be brought to believe that this country will suffer if the Court refuses further to aggrandize the presidential office, already so potent and so relatively immune from judicial review, at the expense of Congress. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2868

Categorization

• XREF: Extraconstitutional party power as a real institutional force connects to the course thread on law vs informal institutions. — connects to: Free government requires that the executive act only under law made by parliamentary deliberation — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2872; Presidential command of public opinion weakens the checking effect of the other branches — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2867; A gap separates the President’s formal paper powers from his real accumulated powers — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2865 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Judicial appointments extend presidential influence far beyond a term #expands (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 511
• Institutional authority can override a party’s own internal majority preference #corroborates (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 142