ABSTRACT
The flexibility of the Constitution's language, combined with the diffidence of the Supreme Court and the intrinsic limitations of judicial review, have made it possible for the powerful Presidency to develop within a framework of governmental legitimacy. The constitutional system permits presidential passivity, indifference, ineptitude, or worse; but it also allows for presidential energy, resourcefulness, creativity, and leadership. Constitutional flexibility—the most distinctive and important feature of American government—has made the Presidency both the most dynamic and the most dangerous of our political institutions. The method of presidential selection has been revolutionized by the substitution of primary elections for party decisions as the principal mode of choosing state delegates to the national nominating conventions. The edifice of presidential power is constructed through a combination of popular attraction to the President as a person and popular support for his policies as national leader. The institutionalization of presidential power in the modern period has a basic understandings and reaffirmation of fundamental principles.
