Few adults like the idea of unilateral action by presidents

April 5, 2024

About half of the public think it would be a bad idea if the next president is able to act on important policy issues without the approval of Congress or the courts. Only 21% think it would be a good thing, and about 30% think it’s neither good nor bad. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to think it would be a bad thing.

The public continue to hold this sentiment when asked the same question if Joe Biden or Donald Trump were elected in November. Overall, half of the public think it would be a bad thing if Biden took unilateral action and just about as many say it would be bad if Trump did this. Republicans are more likely to accept the idea of unilateral presidential power if Trump is re-elected (57%) than Democrats would be if Biden is re-elected (39%).

Partisans are wary of institutional power when the other party is in charge. With Democratic control of the White House, 46% of Republicans think the president holds too much power, while only 16% of Democrats agree. Most Republicans think federal agencies have too much power along with only a fifth of Democrats.

With a majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents, 58% of Democrats think the Supreme Court has too much power while only a quarter of Republicans agree. When asked about Congress where Republicans hold a majority in the House and Democrats control the Senate, about 4 in 10 of both Democrats and Republicans think Congress holds too much power.

About half of the public, regardless of party identification, say the system of checks and balances dividing power among the president, Congress, and the courts is not working well these days.

The nationwide poll was conducted March 21-25, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,282 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.8 percentage points.