The US President is the head of state of the United States, the chief executive of the federal government, as well as the commander in chief of the US armed forces. As such he is probably the most powerful person in the world who wields considerable powers derived from the US constitution, the super-power status of the US, and the influence and prestige of his office. The office of the US Presidency has evolved over the years and is no more the same as envisaged by the country's founding fathers; the powers of the President now depend as much on the constitutional provisions as on historical precedents, the nature of the times, and the qualities of the president himself. This essay briefly describes the various roles of the US President with specific reference to the presidency of George W. Bush.

             1.Expanded Role of the Presidency: From the time of the first US President (George Washington) to the end of the 19th century, the presidency had a limited role restricted mainly to the execution of policies made by the Congress. As the US became a world and industrial power in the 20th century, a stronger presidency was required for managing the country's foreign policy and its growing domestic economy. The Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War saw a further expansion of the President's role-a role that persists to date. Apart from the force of circumstances-industrialization, war, depression, terrorist attacks etc., certain strong presidents, e.g., Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt helped to expand the powers of the office by the force of their personalities and decisive actions at appropriate times. (Greenberg and Page, 355-359).

             2.Ceremonial Role: The President of the United States is the head of the government as well as the head of state, unlike in most other democracies in which the two duties are usually shared by a monarch and a prime minister or a president and a prime minister.