ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches the nature of executive power by considering whether the modern executive could have been the consequence of a modern doctrine of executive power. But is there such a doctrine? It may come as a disagreeable surprise that executive power should be presented as a modern doctrine, when it is universally agreed to be a modern necessity. In the literature of political science on the presidency, the ambivalence of the executive is reflected more obviously. The two works that have led the field in the recent past, Richard E. Neustadls Presidential Power and Edward S. Corwin's The President: Offices and Powers, represent the real, informal presidency and the limited formal presidency, respectively. To secure actually separate powers, the doctrine of separation of powers must reach outside its justification for separation and grasp some notion of executive power in the expanded sense.
