Madison's Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy

History

Shane, Peter M.

Americas

University of Chicago Press

The George W. Bush administration’s ambitious—even breathtaking—claims of unilateral executive authority raised deep concerns among constitutional scholars, civil libertarians, and ordinary citizens alike. But Bush’s attempts to assert his power are only the culmination of a near-thirty-year assault on the basic checks and balances of the U.S. government—a battle waged by presidents of both parties, and one that, as Peter M. Shane warns in Madison’s Nightmare, threatens to utterly subvert the founders’ vision of representative government.
Tracing this tendency back to the first Reagan administration, Shane shows how this era of "aggressive presidentialism" has seen presidents exerting ever more control over nearly every arena of policy, from military affairs and national security to domestic programs. Driven by political ambition and a growing culture of entitlement in the executive branch—and abetted by a complaisant Congress, riven by partisanship—this presidential aggrandizement has too often undermined wise policy making and led to shallow, ideological, and sometimes outright lawless decisions. The solution, Shane argues, will require a multipronged program of reform, including both specific changes in government practice and broader institutional changes aimed at supporting a renewed culture of government accountability.
From the war on science to the mismanaged war on terror, Madison’s Nightmare outlines the disastrous consequences of the unchecked executive—and issues a stern wake-up call to all who care about the fate of our long democratic experiment.

The book is organized to enable students to master the conventional rubrics of the subject, while probing the deeper issues of legal method, public policy, and political organizations that surround disputes over doctrine. Contains an introduction to administrative law; the legislative connection; executive supervision of agency action; administrative adjudication and rule making; government acquisition and disclosure; suits to review administrative action; damage actions against the federal government and its officers; and beneficiary enforcement of public law.

Administrative Law: The American Public Law System : Cases and Materials (American Casebook Series)

Mashaw, Jerry L.

Merrill, Richard A.

Rules & Procedures

West Group

The book is organized to enable students to master the conventional rubrics of the subject, while probing the deeper issues of legal method, public policy, and political organizations that surround disputes over doctrine. Contains an introduction to administrative law; the legislative connection; executive supervision of agency action; administrative adjudication and rule making; government acquisition and disclosure; suits to review administrative action; damage actions against the federal government and its officers; and beneficiary enforcement of public law.

Administrative Law: The American Public Law System, Cases and Materials (American Casebook Series)

Administrative Law: The American Public Law System (American Casebook Series)

Administrative Law

The Seventh Edition of this course book revises only slightly the organization familiar to its many users, but increases the attention paid to informal processes, current controversies, and the push for open government. Following an introduction to the history, institutional context, and theory of administrative law, students are exposed to four main topics: the political control of administration by Congress and the executive branch; agency processes for adjudication and rulemaking; government access to and required disclosure of information; and judicial remedies for official illegality. Doctrinal analysis is enriched by case studies of the law in action in particular contexts.

Administrative Law, The American Public Law System, Cases and Materials, 7th (American Casebook Series)

Cuéllar, Mariano-Florentino

Parrillo, Nicholas

Magill, Elizabeth

West Academic Publishing

Legal scholar Peter M. Shane confronts U.S. presidential entitlement and offers a more reasonable way of conceptualizing our constitutional presidency in the twenty-first century.\nIn the eyes of modern-day presidentialists, the United States Constitution’s vesting of “executive power” means today what it meant in 1787. For them, what it meant in 1787 was the creation of a largely unilateral presidency, and in their view, a unilateral presidency still best serves our national interest. Democracy’s Chief Executive challenges each of these premises, while showing how their influence on constitutional interpretation for more than forty years has set the stage for a presidency ripe for authoritarianism.\nDemocracy’s Chief Executive explains how dogmatic ideas about expansive executive authority can create within the government a psychology of presidential entitlement that threatens American democracy and the rule of law. Tracing today’s aggressive presidentialism to a steady consolidation of White House power aided primarily by right-wing lawyers and judges since 1981, Peter M. Shane argues that this is a dangerously authoritarian form of constitutional interpretation that is not even well supported by an originalist perspective. Offering instead a fresh approach to balancing presidential powers, Shane develops an interpretative model of adaptive constitutionalism, rooted in the values of deliberative democracy. Democracy’s Chief Executive demonstrates that justifying outcomes explicitly based on core democratic values is more, not less, constraining for judicial decision making—and presents a model that Americans across the political spectrum should embrace.\nFrom the Back Cover\n"Peter Shane’s incisive investigation into how the presidency became untethered from democracy challenges us to rethink the executive branch’s role in our government. At a time when faith in our democratic institutions has approached a nadir, Shane offers a compelling and imaginative vision for renewing and strengthening our democracy."—Russ Feingold, former U.S. Senator and President of the American Constitution Society\n"Provides an elegant and persuasive argument for a vision of presidential power in the American constitutional system that is true to both American constitutional history and to the demands of contemporary democratic governance. In the process, Peter Shane shows us what is at stake in the sometimes arcane debates about 'originalism' and the theory of the 'unitary executive,' and why those positions are both mistaken and dangerous."—Jerry L. Mashaw, Professor of Law Emeritus, Yale University\n"A deeply illuminating account of how the relentless push for presidential unilateralism has come to threaten American self-rule and why a democracy-oriented theory of constitutional interpretation is now more urgent than ever. This book is a must-read for those seeking to better understand the connections among presidential power, legal interpretation, and American democracy."—Daphna Renan, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School\n"Shane persuasively demonstrates that aggressive presidentialism threatens American democracy, that its legal foundations are the products not of disinterested interpretation but of political activism, and that those foundations are deeply flawed. Shane also offers an alternative constitutional vision compatible with a democratic presidency. A profound and important book."—Heidi Kitrosser, author of Reclaiming Accountability: Transparency, Executive Power, and the U.S. Constitution\n"A compelling and accessible critique of ever-expanding presidential power written by a venerable scholar of administrative and constitutional law. This book is a well written, thoughtful, and incisive contribution to both academic and popular discourse alike, and truly a volume for our times. Indeed, it is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why the presidency has become so problematic and—in particular—for those

Democracy’s Chief Executive: Interpreting the Constitution and Defining the Future of the Presidency

University of California Press

Through primary documents, explanatory text, questions, and problems, Separation of Powers Law introduces readers to the legal framework shaping both cooperation and competition among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our national government. The book introduces separation of powers issues through an historical presentation. Following this is a brief review of competing theories of constitutional interpretation generally and, more specifically, of the roles of the Presidency. Shane and Bruff then use a series of leading Supreme Court decisions to develop a general framework for separation of powers analysis, exploring each of the key tools vested in the three branches to facilitate our system of "checks and balances." Both judicial cases and institutional case studies explore the role of each branch in holding the other two accountable. Other chapters then examine the interaction of the branches in three fundamental areas - domestic policymaking, foreign affairs, and war powers. The final chapter focuses on the Presidency, discussing how the Executive powers are shaped by the institutional design of the Chief Executive's office.

Separation of Powers Law: Cases and Materials

Bruff, Harold H.

Constitutional Law

Carolina Academic Pr

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