Presidential power is spiraling out of control, making George W. Bush the most powerful American leader since at least WWII, according to a new analysis.

But the current president, now entangled in a controversy over his recent decision to assert Executive Privilege, can’t take full credit for the power grab, the researchers argue. A number of factors have converged over the past 60 years to turn the American presidency into a position of incredible influence that has a negative effect on American politics and which won't change just because someone else takes charge of the White House.

In their new book "Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced" (W. W. Norton, 2007), Johns Hopkins University political scientists Benjamin Ginsberg and Matthew Crenson trace the history of the presidency since the middle of last century, uncovering a series of murder mystery-like motives, means and opportunities that have shaped the executive branch into the most powerful institution on the globe.

Ginsberg and Crenson are not the only researchers to spot the radical change.

“The presidency has grown in size and in power throughout the 20th century,” agreed Christopher S. Kelley, a political scientist at Miami University in Ohio.

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Power grab

In a telephone interview last week, Crenson explained how American politicians today are driven by different desires than they were in the past.

“We have these people with enormously grandiose ambitions, who don’t just want to be president—they want to change history,” Crenson said. Politicians used to be propelled into the presidency by their parties; now they are self-propelled, he said.

This change was accompanied by a general decline in public political participation, said the authors. People’s dwindling interest in politics—and in congressional activities in particular—has allowed presidents to capitalize on unique opportunities.

“When popular participation diminishes, congressional influence goes down, and one of the obstacles for presidential power is significantly reduced,” Crenson said. “You can see over the course of the 20th century, presidents have either grabbed or invented one instrument of power after another.”

For instance, when Warren G. Harding set up the Bureau of the Budget in 1921, he essentially created a mechanism by which the executive branch could oversee the activities of federal agencies, Crenson explained.

And when the public looked to the president for help during the Great Depression, Congress gave Franklin D. Roosevelt the resources to establish the Executive Office of the President, an entity that houses the powerful National Security Council and the Office of Management and Budget, said Kelley, the Miami University researcher.

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