ABSTRACT
Envisioning what an American presidency should look like and anticipating how it would work was extraordinarily difficult because the republican executive the delegates were trying to create was unlike anything the world had seen before. The concentration of power in the federal legislature was at odds with Americans' professed attachment to the separation of powers. The founding generation's uncertainty and sharp disagreements about the presidency have not stopped Americans from believing that the Constitution contains a fixed meaning and reflects a unified vision. The chapter presents the four visions of presidency: the potent presidency; the princely presidency; the perverted presidency; and the progressive presidency. Adherents of the princely presidency thesis adopt a similar reading of the Constitution, but instead of celebrating the Constitution for creating a potent presidency they worry about the adverse impact of the presidency on democratic politics. Exponents of the progressive presidency agree that the Constitution is dedicated to thwarting the exercise of executive power.
