Assess the significance of the Watergate scandal

Résumé du document

Born in 1913 in California, Richard Nixon became the 37th president of the United States in 1968, after being governor of California in 1950, then vice-president at the side of Eisenhower. This republican president earned a big success at the beginning. He indeed managed to end the war in Vietnam with the agreements of Paris of 1973. He also improved the relations with the USSR and formally recognized the government of the People's Republic of China. In 1972, Richard Nixon decided to bid again for a second mandate, and was re-elected then splendidly. But a scandal terminated his career. It was indeed on the night of June 17th, 1972 that the Watergate affair began. This story, one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century, offended profoundly the United States. So, why was this scandal so important? What did it mean in the context of the functioning of the American Institutions? First, what was the president blamed for? Then, what changes did it generate in the balance of power in the American institutions, such as the congress, the presidency, justice or an emerging fourth power, the press? The scandal of Watergate began with the arrest of five burglars, in the building of Watergate in Washington. It is there that the headquarters of the Democratic Party was based.

Extraits

[...] According to the Constitution of 1787, the President is the leader of the executive and thus has specific and important powers. The strict separation of the powers, the golden rule of the constitution, finds then its application in a presidential regime, where the Congress detains the legislative power, where the executive holds the right of veto, but where the President is not responsible in front of the Parliament and where in return he is not entitled to dissolution. The balance of power and rights of political opponents are in this way better guaranteed. But since the thirties, with Franklin D. [...]

[...] Mark Felt, who was second in command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the Watergate affair. Interestingly enough, this specific event illustrated the need for certain official investigators to seek the help of the public opinion, even in violation of their confidentiality duty, to leak certain information to the press to make sure it was made public and not buried through political or administrative manipulation and eventually to keep the enquiry moving forward. The scandal of Watergate shocked the public opinion and shook the faith of the citizens in the person of the president. [...]

[...] However, when the scandal of Watergate burst, the presidential institution weakened. This affair shook the confidence of the Americans in their government, mainly in their president, and this, in a durable way. The issue of the extent of presidential power was raised. Does he have finally all rights, including the right to spy on his opponents? The phone taping system is perceived as a threat to elementary civil rights and the abusive use of the principles of " national security privilege " and " executive privilege " to slow down the inquiry shocked also a lot of citizens. [...]

[...] So, the fact that the president was able to make up his "skulduggery", to lie to justice or at the least not to cooperate, appeared clearly as an insult to the traditional spirit of American democracy. The president was viewed as dishonest in the eyes of his people, and it was a major fact in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate tapes, which were conversations between president Nixon and members of his staff at the White House played also a important role in the scandal of Watergate and profoundly shocked the population. [...]

[...] For many years, the concentration of the power was in the hands of the executive, which led then to numerous abuses, such as the Watergate scandal. As a consequence, the Congress tried to clarify its constitutional privileges, to increase its powers and regain a part of the ground, which it had left with the executive. After Watergate, the Congress had an increased importance in the balance of power, and quite particularly through the threat of impeachment. The impeachment is a very particular procedure, inherited from the British tradition. [...]