Imperial presidency is a term describing the modern presidency of the United States. It became popular in the 1960s and served as the title of historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s 1973 book The Imperial Presidency, addressing his concerns that the presidency was uncontrollable and had exceeded its constitutional limits.[1]
According to political science professor Thomas E. Cronin, author of The State of the Presidency, the term "imperial presidency" describes the danger inherent in the American constitutional system's letting a president create and abuse presidential prerogatives during national emergencies,[2] based on presidential war powers that are vaguely defined in the Constitution, and on secrecy which shields a president from checks and balances by the government's legislative and judicial branches.[2]