Imperial Presidency

Imperial Presidency is a term used to describe the modern presidency of the United States which became popular in the 1960s and served as the title of a 1973 volume by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who wrote The Imperial Presidency out of two concerns: that the US presidency was uncontrollable and that it had exceeded the constitutional limits.

It was based on a number of observations. In the 1930s, the president had few staff, most of them based in the US Capitol, where the President has always had an office. The Oval Office is still used when the president is in the country and not traveling, but it is most often used for ceremonial occasions, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, presidents were more regularly based there with a small staff. However, Franklin D. Roosevelt's leadership during the Great Depression and World War II changed the presidency. His leadership in the new age of electronic media, the growth of executive agencies under the New Deal, his Brain Trust advisors, and the creation of the Executive Office of the President in 1939 led to a transformation of the presidency.

The president has a large executive staff most often crowded in the West Wing, the basement of the White House, or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is beside the White House and used by the Departments of Defense and State. Progressive overcrowding in the West Wing led President Richard Nixon to convert the former presidential swimming pool into a press room.

Some have suggested that the range of new agencies, the importance of the Chief of Staff, and the large number of officials created a virtual "royal court" around the president, with members not answerable to anyone but him and on occasions acting independently of him, as well.

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