POWER IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM. 233 



However, to sustain this distinction we must recognize the am- 

 biguity of the term " executive power." Writers on administrative 

 law have recognized the two distinct functions frequently vested in 

 the chief executive, designated respectively as " political " and " ad- 

 ministrative " functions.-^ The political functions exhausted the 

 early conception of " executive power " and corresponded very 

 closely to what we call the foreign relations power. During the 

 nineteenth century, however, the administrative functions of the 

 chief executive or the functions of executing the law and direct- 

 ing the national civil services have increased in importance and 

 now it is to these that writers and courts usually refer when they 

 speak of " executive power." Thus though foreign relations power 

 is almost synonymous with executive power according to the earlier 

 usage, under present usage the two are distinct. 



This is especially true in the United States. Here the political 

 functions of the executive are largely in the field of foreign rela- 

 tions.^^ Though the President has been gaining an increasing 

 political influence in domestic afifairs through the veto, the patron- 

 age, "and his extra-constitutional position as head of his political 

 party, yet, lacking the powers of initiating legislation, personally 

 forcing it through the legislature, and if necessary proroguing or 

 dissolving that body, commonly exercised by European executives, 

 he has not assumed the dominating position in domestic policy 

 found there. His legal powers have been in the main confined to 

 executing the law and directing the national civil service. 



In foreign affairs, on the other hand, the President's political 

 powers are as great as those of the executive in most European 

 countries, but for their exercise he usually requires the advice and 

 consent of the Senate. Thus, these powers have tended to be dis- 



21 Goodnow, Principles of the Administrative Law of the U. S., p. 66; 

 Wil'loughby, op. cit., p. 1156. 



-- The only ones which are not are the veto power given by Art. I, sec. 7, 

 par. 3, and those in Art. II, sec. 3. " He shall from time to time give to the 

 Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their 

 Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he 

 may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and 

 in Case of Disagreement between them, with respect to the Time of Adjourn- 

 ment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper." 



