Summary
Contents
This comprehensive guide is the definitive source for researchers seeking an understanding of those who have occupied the White House and on the institution of the U.S. presidency. Readers turn to Guide to the Presidency for its wealth of facts and analytical chapters that explain the structure, powers, and operations of the office and the president’s relationship with Congress and the Supreme Court. The work is divided into eight distinct subject areas covering every aspect of the U.S. presidency.
Chapter 7 Selection by Succession
Chapter 7 Selection by Succession
The original Constitution—supplemented by the Twentieth Amendment (1933), the Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967), the succession acts of 1792, 1886, and 1947, the rules of the Republican and Democratic Parties, and various informal precedents and practices—provides that under certain circumstances the president may be selected not by election, but by succession.
Historically, nine presidents have reached the White House through succession—four of them when the incumbent president died of natural causes, four when the president was assassinated, and one when the president resigned. Four succeeded to the presidency in the nineteenth century, five in the twentieth century, none thus far in the twenty-first century. None of the nineteenth-century vice presidents was subsequently nominated by his party for a term as ...