The Unitary Government Principle: A Hazard to Constitutional Authorities

“I’ve an Article II,” Donald Trump has introduced, citing the US Structure, “the place I’ve the best to do no matter I would like as president.” Although this assertion would have come as a shock to the framers of the Structure, it pretty sums up the essence of “the unitary govt concept.” This concept, which emerged through the Reagan administration and gathered power with each subsequent presidency, counters the system of checks and balances that constrains a president’s govt impulses. It additionally, the authors of this ebook contend, counters the letter and spirit of the Structure.

Of their account of the rise of unitary govt concept during the last a number of many years, the authors refute the notion that this overweening view of govt energy has been a typical characteristic of the presidency from the start of the Republic. Moderately, they present, it was invented beneath the Reagan Administration, acquired a lift through the George W. Bush administration, and has discovered its logical extension within the Trump administration. This critique of the unitary govt concept reveals it as a misguided mannequin for understanding presidential powers. Whereas its adherents argue that better presidential energy makes authorities extra environment friendly, the outcomes have proven in any other case. Dismantling the parable that presidents get pleasure from unchecked plenary powers, the authors advocate for rules of separation of powers—of checks and balances—that honor the Structure and assist the republican authorities its framers envisioned.

A much-needed primer on presidential energy, from the nation’s founding by Donald Trump’s impeachment,
The Unitary Government Principle: A Hazard to Constitutional Authorities makes a sturdy and persuasive case for a return to our constitutional limits.