The Diplomatic Power Struggle Between The President And Congress-Beginning With Wilson And Lodge

It is always one controversial issue that who, the President or Congress, controls the Foreign policy ofthe United States. Even the dispute between President Wilson and Senator Lodge was so typical on theLeague of Nations’ establishment, it just revealed a tip of iceberg of the U.S. diplomatic struggle for power.Because behind the contradictions of Wilson and Lodge, the principle of Separation of Power and theChecks and Balances is the real protagonist. So no matter how powerful leadership and political skills thepoliticians have, they are also limited by the constitutional principles, serving for political party, affected byinterest groups and guided by conception. Besides, after going through various complicated struggle, thePresident and Senators have to wield power through executive and legislative authorities. Finally thesepowers will still return to political system, and accept what decided by the principle of Separation of Powerand the Checks and Balances.Actually, the dispute between Wilson and Lodge was changed with the changes of their attitude to theLeague of Nations. Initially both of them held a positive attitude. The difference is, Wilson consistentlyadhered to his opinion but Lodge suddenly changed his mind in the early1917. He thought United States’involvement in the struggle between nations would run out of its strength. After Wilson had submitted theplan to establish League of Nations, Lodge fully used the authority of his President position in the Councilon Foreign Relations, to delay this establishment plan for2months, which helped Republican intransigentsand the conservative win time to perform propaganda attack to Wilson’s plan. Compared to Lodge’saggressive attack, Wilson’s coping strategies was not mature enough, which led to the plan’s failure.In the establishment struggle of the League of Nations, Wilson and Rocky are key figure rather thanthe dominant factor. The contradictions between executive and legislative authorities are caused by twomen, whereas also controlled by the Constitution, political parties, conception, institutions’ values and otherfactors. So, any dispute between White House and Congress in the history of the United States would notbe a simple power struggle, but always involve all kinds of factors, which made the issue more complicated.For this reason, the diplomatic power struggle between executive and legislative authorities always displaysdifferent phenomenon. However, regardless of how intense the diplomatic power struggle takes on, the executive and legislative authorities will not cross the border too far, and will try to maintain the balance ofpolitics and power after the struggle.That the executive and legislative authorities in the United States could maintain the political balanceafter complex struggle is attributed to the principle of Separation of Power and the Checks and Balances.And the Separation of Powers factor and Checks and Balances factor are indispensable. The Separation ofPowers is to prevent the abuse of power, and Checks and balances is to prevent the decentralization ofpower. It is inseparable from this political system that the United Sate could make great achievement.Nonetheless, its political system is not flawless. It also can not eradicate the politics of favoritism, can notcarry out a real wide range of democracy.