Presidential Power and Congressional Acquiescence in the "War" on Terrorism (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,3, University of Würzburg (Institut für Politikwissenschaft und Sozialforschung), course: American Government, language: English, abstract: In his article "Presidential Power and Congressional Acquiescence in the 'War' on Terrorism: A New Constitutional Equilibrium?" John E. Owens of the University of Westminster suggests the existence of a new constitutional equilibrium between the President and Congress in America. He builds his thesis on Burnham's punctuated equilibrium theory and analyzes Bush's policy and his war on terrorism.
In this essay I will explain the main thesis of the punctuated equilibrium theory at first, to build on that basis the critical analysis whether the system of Checks and Balances in the United States is or has been out of work and whether we can truly speak of a change of system. This will be checked by analysing the constitution, the role of the Congress and the presidency of George W. Bush. In a second part of this essay I will take up the punctuated equilibrium theory again and explain that the equilibrium of the American system has been punctuated but it was not pushed on a new level, but levelled off again on the old equilibrium and re-established the system of Checks and Balances.