Madison's nightmare : how executive power threatens American democracy / Peter M. Shane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shane, Peter M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Executive power--United States--History.

Executive power.

Separation of powers--United States--History.

Separation of powers.

Representative government and representation--United States--History.

Representative government and representation.

United States--Politics and government--21st century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (259 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Madison's nightmare: how the federal government became unchecked and unbalanced

Checks and balances in law and history

Iraq and the (unlearned) lessons of Vietnam: presidentialism and the pathologies of unilateral policy making

Presidentialism, national security, and the breakdown of government lawyering

Form over accountability: executive privilege, signing statements, and the illusion of law

The president's personal bureaucracy: administrative accountability and the unitary Executive

Recovering the Madisonian dream: visions of democracy, steps to reform.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612240027

9781282240025

1282240021

9780226749426

0226749428

OCLC:

435911855