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This thesis seeks to define the American President's role as legislative leader and to trace the origin and development of that role throughout the history of the office of the presidency. Presidents were not consistently active in this capacity until the middle of the twentieth century. The first part of the thesis examines precedents set by strong presidents prior to and early in the twentieth century, as well as an important institutional change in the government, the creation of the Budget System, which smoothed the way for Presidential adoption of the tasks of legislative leader. The middle sections of the work examine the three American Presidents who fully adopted and institutionalized the role of legislative leader within the presidency, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and [)wight Eisenhower. Finally, the conclusions section examines the implications of presidential adoption of this role in the American system of government with respect to the balance between the President and the Congress. Research for this paper consisted of careful examination of primary sources, books and periodicals covering the history of the presidency, as well as examination of political commentary on the office and many of its occupants. In addition, communication with the Office of Legislative Reference in the Executive Office of the President provided helpful information.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of American federal government, during periods within which these two branches are led by different political parties, to discover whether the legislative branch attempts to independently legislate and enact foreign policy by using “the power of the purse” to either appropriate in support of or refuse to appropriate in opposition to military engagement abroad. The methodology for this research includes the analysis and comparison of certain variables, including public opinion, budgetary constraints, and the relative majority of the party that holds power in one or both chambers, and the ways these variables may impact the behavior of the legislative branch in this regard. It also includes the analysis of appropriations requests made by the legislative branch for funding military engagement in rejection of requests from the executive branch for all military engagements that occurred during periods of divided government from 1946 through 2009