# Presidents do not play an important role in running the nation **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 7, 2016, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832 "2016-10-07T11:47:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/21 "2016-10-07T17:09:23Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Oh…you believe in _that_ bigoted crap. Yup, looks like another unsupported conspiracy theory, with vaguely antisemitic overtones. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/22 "2016-10-07T17:38:20Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > I can sit here right now and honestly say not a single tiny bit of any aspect of my life is changed by anything the President has ever done. You’ve never talked to a veteran? Known a family who had someone serving overseas? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/23 "2016-10-07T18:39:59Z")
> [@Leonid\_Semyonov](#): > > The president and ministers are people not related with each other. Each by itself. In the US the president appoints cabinet ministers. > [@](#): > > On the other hand there are wealthy powerful “clans” (“families”), owners of corporations (not just one or two, a lot more). They all have an influence on some of interesting them problems (using their people in administration, etc). In general, all together, these “clans” have an impact on the decisions. Not all decisions, of course. But on many of them. Not all that many corporations are owned by families any more. Plus, if you were correct, policy would not change when presidents change. Which is not what happens. > [@](#): > > The problem is that the president/ministers simply don’t have time to learn about problems (even just most important of them) and to make good decisions. Someone else does these decisions for them. What do you think a president does all day? Other people do the research and prepare summaries, but the president decides. > [@](#): > > I think, even _go-to-war decisions_ are made by other people. President just pronounces them. One might argue that Rummy and Cheney made the go to war in Iraq decision as much as Bush, but that is an exception. But why would corporations want to waste all that money going into Iraq? > [@](#): > > Maybe I think like a child (sorry for that). No, you are just very ignorant about how American government works. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/24 "2016-10-07T19:24:50Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But why would corporations want to waste all that money going into Iraq? Do you consider the military-industrial complex a conspiracy theory? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/25 "2016-10-07T21:54:50Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Do you consider the military-industrial complex a conspiracy theory? Haliburton’s influence isn’t a theory - but they are just a tiny part of the economy. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/26 "2016-10-07T22:35:09Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Do you consider the military-industrial complex a conspiracy theory? Depends how it is applied. Does the military industrial complex have influence on politicians? Of course. Do they make the real decisions in our government? Of course not. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/27 "2016-10-07T23:42:23Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Oh…you believe in _that_ bigoted crap. I was waiting for him to break down from his reluctance to be openly antisemitic and post “The Rothschilds”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/28 "2016-10-10T20:16:09Z")
Yeah, the President appoints a lot of those officials, and has power over them. So he does do it. And “ministers,” by whom I think you mean “prime ministers” are usually the head of a parliamentary body, and thus set the agenda for lawmaking. So they definitely have power. Now, some figures are just heads of state that have no actual power, like the Queen of England. But those are the only ones who do not play a role in running a nation. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832/29 "2016-10-10T20:57:10Z")
> [@Leonid\_Semyonov](#): > > They just simply can not have a major impact on making decisions. They don’t have enough time. Don’t have enough energy. There are so many questions (problems), each of which they need to think carefully (and also to understand the origins of each problem – it takes a lot of time to do research). May be one person can deal with 3, or 4 problems. But there are many more (and every day). They have a lot of activities in which they must be present and which occupy a large part of their time (I suppose that they can’t do carefully thinking during these activities). Sometimes they even don’t have time to sign all the documents (and of course do not have time to read these documents completely). That’s what you have a professional civil service for. The elected politicians define the primary objectives of the government, but delegate to the professionals the research, the evaluation of different ways of achieving the objective, drafting the legislation and so on; but the ministers will handle the public presentation and advocacy. At the same time, of course, political parties and specialist think tanks will be doing a lot of the thinking as well. Nobody comes to this stuff with no preparation at all (if they’re wise), let alone expecting to be on top of every last detail. The trick is, to know how to delegate and how to ensure you get enough thinking time: some politicians are better at this than others. There are plenty of books on how different systems of government work that might answer the OP’s point. But the most obvious point is that systems that diffuse power and allow for different opinions to be expressed and considered, in an organised and deliberative way, in the long run produce more durable and effective solutions than those that expect some superhero leader to govern everything off the top of their head. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidents-do-not-play-an-important-role-in-running-the-nation/767832.md?page=1)