Reclaiming accountability : transparency, executive power, and the U.S. Constitution / Heidi Kitrosser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kitrosser, Heidi, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Executive power--United States.

Executive power.

Transparency (Ethics) in government.

Government accountability.

United States.

Government accountability--United States.

Executive privilege (Government information)--United States.

Executive privilege (Government information).

Transparency (Ethics) in government--United States.

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

Physical Description:

283 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Summary:

Americans tend to believe in government that is transparent and accountable. Those who govern us work for us, and therefore they must also answer to us. But how do we reconcile calls for greater accountability with the competing need for secrecy, especially in matters of national security? Those two imperatives are usually taken to be antithetical, but Heidi Kitrosser argues convincingly that this is not the case-and that our concern ought to lie not with secrecy, but with the sort of unchecked secrecy that can result from "presidentialism," or constitutional arguments for broad executive control of information. In Reclaiming Accountability, Kitrosser traces presidentialism from its start as part of a decades-old legal movement through its appearance during the Bush and Obama administrations, demonstrating its effects on secrecy throughout. Taking readers through the key presidentialist arguments-including "supremacy" and "unitary executive theory"-she explains how these arguments misread the Constitution in a way that is profoundly at odds with democratic principles. Kitrosser's own reading offers a powerful corrective, showing how the Constitution provides myriad tools, including the power of Congress and the courts to enforce checks on presidential power, through which we could reclaim government accountability.

Contents:

The constitutional law of government secrecy

The tools and politics of constitutional meaning

Substantive accountability and external checking

Supremacy explained and critiqued

How supremacy undermines substantive accountability

Presidential supremacy in the courts

Substantive accountability and internal checking

How unitary executive theory undermines substantive accountability

Where do we go from here?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226191638

022619163X

OCLC:

871670549