the modern presidency: the president and the parties

br Presidential politics

One clear result of this practice is that individual candidates are now virtually dissected by the media and by prospective voters to measure their probable "characters " and "defects " The fascination with individual manners , faux pas , manner of dress , speech , religious affiliation , past memberships in social organizations or clubs , or even past associations with friends or acquaintances now play , arguably , a more important role than issues in recent Presidential elections . One question remains : what is the role of political parties in the Presidential election

In modern Presidential politics

, the political parties often seem like afterthoughts . The present day situation presents a precisely opposite vision than that which Milkis identifies as a Constitutional model for the American Presidency . Because the Presidential candidates are now regarded as leaders of their respective parties and not simply as nominees of them , the expectation is that a given candidate will follow to partisan exclusion , the aims and desires of his or her party . In fact , the expectation in modern politics is that the party and the candidate are virtually identical , but that in the long run executive rather than democratic , authority is the final word . Political parties have largely become the "followers " of individual Presidents , rather than the populist directives over the executive branch

An entire library of observations could be written about the expansion of Presidential authority -- indeed , the tyranny of Presidential authority -- relative to political parties which is exemplified by the Bush administration . In point of fact , the Bush administration seems to represent the far-extremity of the empowered Presidency in its role as a Constitution-killer , a possibility which many of the Founding Fathers worried about considerably , likening the American President to a potentially destructive King or Dictator

Milkis ' article makes clear not only the danger of an empowered Presidency brings...