The increasing authority of the president and the consequent
imbalance of power threaten democracy, say Crenson and Ginsberg
(both Political Science/Johns Hopkins Univ.). Their book, which
includes more than 40 pages of endnotes, is addressed to readers
concerned with the political health of America and remains
generally nonpartisan. The authors view the shift in balance as a
crime and frame their argument using terms familiar to watchers of
TV cop shows: motive, means, opportunity. An opening chapter
provides outlines; the remaining ones examine factors more closely.
Crenson and Ginsberg note numerous historical changes in the US
method of selecting presidents. The early ones were Revolutionary
heroes of several sorts; then powerful political parties emerged,
and candidates became party animals; only fairly recently have we
seen highly ambitious candidates use the mass media and the primary
system to attract the spotlight. The authors describe an
ever-expanding executive branch and the weapons at a president's
disposal: vetoes, executive orders, signing statements,
regulations. Today's presidents, they aver, possess "a capacity for
unilateral action unforeseen in the Constitution." Crenson and
Ginsberg take a long look at the president's increasing ability to
make war, a power the Constitution specifically assigns to
Congress. Near the end, they offer analyses of the decline of
congressional power and the recent tendency of federal courts to
support the executive branch when it scrapes against the
legislative house. One reason they discern is that most federal
judges used to have a legislative background; today, fewer than
five percent do. As the authors demonstrate, the courts have
consistently upheld the initiatives of the executive branch in
matters of foreign policy and war and national emergency. They
marvel at an apparent paradox: Even as a president's popularity
plummets, his power increases.A comprehensive, judicious and even
alarming view of a constitutional crisis. (Kirkus Reviews)
Recent presidents have exploited the power of the American
presidency more fully than their predecessors and with greater
consequence than the framers of the Constitution anticipated. This
book, in the tradition of Arthur Schlesinger's great work "The
Imperial Presidency" (1973), explores how American presidents
especially those of the past three decades have increased the power
of the presidency at the expense of democracy. Matthew Crenson and
Benjamin Ginsberg provide a fascinating history of this trend,
showing that the expansion of presidential power dates back over
one hundred years. "Presidential Power" also looks beyond the
president's actions in the realm of foreign policy to consider
other, more hidden, means that presidents have used to
institutionalize the power of the executive branch."
General
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