13 - The President’s Two Bodies

Summary

American constitutionalism consists of two quite foundational, conflictual, but ultimately interdependent understandings of the presidency – what we might think of as the president’s “two bodies.” On one view, the presidency is an individual – a “he” (maybe one day “she”). Presidential power is individualistic along three dimensions: it is singular, temporary, and personal. On the other view, the presidency is an institution. It is composite, permanent (or at least indefinite), and impersonal. Ever since George Washington embodied the idea of an institution still in the making, we’ve had this deep tension – these competing impulses between a personal or charismatic president and a more impersonal and deliberative institutional presidency. Public law reveals different perspectives on how to manage this duality. But public law cannot resolve it. Rather, the president’s “two bodies” is the defining ambiguity of the constitutional office. It is the conception on which our understandings of presidential power rest.