The handoff: from 43 to 44: George W. Bush is still President until January 20, but as a "lame duck" his influence is greatly diminished. Why does the U.S. have this long transition and what are the implications at a time of economic crisis?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: ELECTION 2008

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The election is over, and the voters have spoken. But until Barack Obama's inauguration as America's 44th President on January 20, the Oval Office is still occupied by George W. Bush.

The United States is unusual among the world's democracies for having a long transition period between the election of a leader and the leader taking office. In countries like Britain, France, and Israel, new governments can take over the day after an election; in the U.S., it's two-and-a-half months between Election Day and Inauguration Day, with the sitting President often referred to as a lame duck: Regardless of how popular or unpopular he is, a President with less than three months left in office is going to see his authority and influence diminish significantly.

"It's a very awkward period," says Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

This arrangement made perfect sense when the Founding Fathers wrote it into the Constitution in the 18th century: Information traveled by horse, not the Internet, and time was needed for presidential electors to meet in their state capitals, cast their votes, and "transmit" the results to Congress.

But there was also an ideological reason, says Lee Edwards, a presidential scholar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

"You have to start with the basic premise that they [the Founders] didn't want government to be too efficient," he says. "They were building in checks and balances. The whole thing was intended to slow down the process and make sure that things are done in an appropriate and studied manner."

In fact, the transition period used to be even longer. Until the passage of the 20th Amendment in 1933 moved Inauguration Day to January, the new President didn't take office until March--a four-month wait.

It was the disastrous transition from President Herbert Hoover to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 that prompted the change. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression when FDR won the 1932 election. Hoover tried to work with Roosevelt on the economy, but the President-elect resisted. So for four months, the Depression deepened.

"Roosevelt simply did not want to get close to [Hoover] or be identified with anything he would want to do, because he was terribly unpopular, and the same now exists with George W. Bush," says historian Robert Dallek.

This year, with his approval ratings at historic lows--in the 20 percent range for much of the last year President Bush...