Government powers Books

Book SynopsisTony Blair was prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland between 1997 and 2007. The only Labour leader in the party's 100-year history to win three consecutive elections, he led a government whose achievements ranged from wholesale domestic reform, to a major programme of overseas aid and development, to the securing of the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. After leaving office he founded the not-for-profit Tony Blair Institute (TBI) in the conviction that a country's success and ability to enact transformational change is dependent on the effectiveness of its leadership and governance. Under his direction the Institute works with political leaders around the world, advising on strategy, policy and delivery and on the use of technology to drive all three.

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Book SynopsisAn urgent and necessary polemic on the government’s assault on our fundamental freedoms and the proliferation of Human Rights.Trade Review'A clear-headed and important contribution to our contemporary predicament from one of the most brilliant young political minds of our time.'Peter Oborne 'A book that could make Gordon Brown vote Tory.'Nick Cohen 'A feisty and refreshing attack on human-rights orthodoxy.'John Gray, The Independent 'Dominic Raab's lament for Britain's lost liberal democracy should reinforce the arguments of those already worried by the state of British human rights; and it should make those who dismiss these concerns think again.'John Kampfner, The Observer 'As useful a guide as you could want to the consequences of a prolonged absence of proper parliamentary oversight or opposition.'Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times 'Dominic Raab has been at the middle of the battle to defend our freedoms from these many different threats, and also brings an understanding of the international dimension to the table. He is uniquely placed to analyse the problems and propose thoughtful solutions in this book. His first class forensic analysis is likely to provoke some strong responses, but the cause of freedom is never defended without some discomfort.'Rt Hon David Davis MP 'An excellent and timely book.'Henry Porter 'An excellent book.'Timothy Garton Ash

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Book SynopsisFROM THE WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICSOne of the Financial Times'' Best Books of 2019One of Kirkus Reviews'' Best Books of 2019Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize''This book is more original and exciting than its predecessor...the highly influential Why Nations Fail' Martin Wolf, Financial TimesBy the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, based on decades of research, this powerful new big-picture framework explains how some countries develop towards and provide liberty while others fall to despotism, anarchy or asphyxiating norms - and explains how liberty can thrive despite new threats.Liberty is hardly the ''natural'' order of things; usually states have been either too weak to protect individuals or too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. There is also a happy Western myth that where liberty exists, it''s a steady state, arrived at by ''enlightenment''. But liberty emerges only when a delicate and incessant balance is struck between state and society - between elites and citizens. This struggle becomes self-reinforcing, inducing both state and society to develop a richer array of capacities, thus affecting the peacefulness of societies, the success of economies and how people experience their daily lives.Explaining this new framework through compelling stories from around the world, in history and from today - and through a single diagram on which the development of any state can be plotted - this masterpiece helps us understand the past and present, and analyse the future.''As enjoyable as it is thought-provoking'' Jared DiamondTrade ReviewThis book is more original and exciting than its predecessor...the highly influential Why Nations Fail -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *One of the biggest paradoxes of political history is the trend, over the last 10,000 years, towards the development of strong centralized states, out of the former bands and tribes of no more than a few hundred people that formerly constituted all human societies. Without such states, it would be impossible for societies of millions to function. But-how can a powerful state be reconciled with liberty for the state's citizens? This great book provides an answer to this fundamental dilemma. You will find it as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking -- Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and SteelAnother outstanding, insightful book by Acemoglu and Robinson on the importance and difficulty of getting and maintaining a successful democratic state. Packed with examples and analysis, it is a pleasure to read -- Peter Diamond, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2010Society and state need each other. Applying a global wealth of historical detail to a simple analytic framework, Acemoglu and Robinson build a powerful argument against the current opposing fashions of totalitarianism and the stateless society -- Sir Paul Collier, author of The Bottom BillionThe Narrow Corridor takes us on a fascinating journey, across continents and through human history, to discover the critical ingredient of liberty. It finds that it's up to each of us: that ingredient is our own commitments, as citizens, to support democratic values. In these times, there can be no more important message-nor any more important book -- George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001How should we view the current challenges facing our democracies? This brilliant, timely book offers a simple, powerful framework for assessing alternative forms of social governance. The analysis is a reminder that it takes vigilance to maintain a proper balance between the state and society-to stay in the 'narrow corridor'-and avoid falling either into statelessness or dictatorship -- Bengt Holmstrom, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2016Why is it so difficult to develop and sustain liberal democracy? The best recent work on this subject comes from a remarkable pair of scholars, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. In their latest book, they have answered this question with great insight -- Fareed Zakaraia * Washington Post *Liberty does not come easily. Many populations suffer from an ineffective state and are stuck in a cage of norms and traditions, of self-appointed chiefs, dispute adjudicators, guardians of souls and husbands turned tyrants. Others are subdued by a despotic Leviathan. In this highly original and gratifying fresco, Daron Acemoglu and Jim Robinson take us on a journey through civilizations, time and locations. Their narrow corridor depicts the constant and often unstable struggle of society to keep the Leviathan in check and of the Leviathan to weaken the cage of norms. A remarkable achievement that only they could pull off and that seems destined to repeat the stellar performance of Why Nations Fail -- Jean Tirole, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2014

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Book SynopsisGive and Take offers a new history of government in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), one that focuses on ordinary subjects: merchants, artisans, villagers, and people at the margins of society. Maren Ehlers explores how high and low people negotiated and collaborated with each other as they addressed the problem of poverty in early modern Japan.

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Book SynopsisThis volume provides an introduction to the United Kingdom''s constitution that recognises and embraces its historical, social, political, and legal dimensions. It critically examines the radical changes to the UK constitution that have occurred over the last thirty years, paying particular attention to the revival of the constituent territories of the UK - Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England - and to the increasing role played by the judges in constitutional disputes. The UK constitution is presented as being shaped by a set of constitutional principles, including state sovereignty, separation of powers, democracy, subsidiarity, and the rule of law, principles which set the overall structure of the constitution and inform statutes and the decisions of judges. Adopting a principled approach to the UK constitution allows us to see both the clarity of the constitution''s structure and also helps explain its complexities.Trade ReviewNicholas Barber's excellent new book is published at a time of great flux in the constitution of the United Kingdom. The book is wide ranging in its approach; it covers all of the main dimensions of the constitution in a relatively modest 360 pages, and it does so in a multi-layered approach that combines empirical exposition, doctrinal analysis, theoretical sophistication and carefully argued critical reflection. * Stephen Tierney, I-CONnect *Hardly surprising, given its author, that this is a truly excellent introduction to the UK Constitution ... I strongly recommend this book. * Mark Tushnet, Balkinization *

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Book SynopsisReveals how the U.S. Supreme Court's presidentialism threatens our democracy and what to do about it. Donald Trump's presidency made many Americans wonder whether our system of checks and balances would prove robust enough to withstand an onslaught from a despotic chief executive. In The Specter of Dictatorship, David Driesen analyzes the chief executive's role in the democratic decline of Hungary, Poland, and Turkey and argues that an insufficiently constrained presidency is one of the most important systemic threats to democracy. Driesen urges the U.S. to learn from the mistakes of these failing democracies. Their experiences suggest, Driesen shows, that the Court must eschew its reliance on and expansion of the "unitary executive theory" recently endorsed by the Court and apply a less deferential approach to presidential authority, invoked to protect national security and combat emergencies, than it has in recent years. Ultimately, Driesen argues that concern about loss of democracy should play a major role in the Court's jurisprudence, because loss of democracy can prove irreversible. As autocracy spreads throughout the world, maintaining our democracy has become an urgent matter.Trade Review"David Driesen has written an eloquent and powerful account of the Framers' concern about 'tyranny' and their profound commitment to democracy. His careful historical scholarship and deft analysis of doctrine demonstrate clearly the ways that growing presidential power has imperiled this principle. An urgent and compelling read not just for today's crises, but for understanding the basic dynamics of American democracy and its antagonists." -- Aziz Z. Huq * University of Chicago Law School *"A book for our troubled times. Blending history, law, and politics, David Driesen situates the Trump presidency in the alarming global trend toward autocracy and diagnoses what currently ails democracy in America. Richly detailed, highly informative, and deeply contextual, this book is required reading to understand the forces threatening the liberal democratic values of modern constitutionalism." -- Richard Albert * The University of Texas at Austin *"Constitutional drafters often establish semi-autonomous executive institutions to serve as guardrails of democracy. Over the past several decades, conservative lawyers and judges in the U.S. have systematically targeted such bureaucratic independence as inconsistent with the constitutional theory of a 'unitary executive.' Driesen masterfully lays bare the previously underappreciated role played by unitary executive theory in ongoing processes of democratic erosion." -- Thomas M. Keck * Syracuse University *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: chapter abstractThis chapter explains that this book will analyze excessive presidential power's potential to undermine democracy by exploring democratic decline primarily in Hungary, Turkey, and Poland. It outlines the book's major lesson: the head of state plays a key role in establishing autocracy by establishing unimpeded control over the executive branch in keeping with the American unitary executive theory, often accelerated through use of emergency powers. It outlines the book's argument that the U.S. Supreme Court has augmented executive power in dangerous ways and describes its principal recommendations for taking the potential for autocracy into account in adjudicating separation-of-powers cases. It summarizes each chapter's contribution to this argument. 1Avoiding Tyranny at the Founding chapter abstractThis chapter establishes that the Founders of this nation shared a goal of avoiding a future drive to autocracy and suggests that this intention should guide the Supreme Court's treatment of presidential power. It explains the controversy over whether the Founders embraced the unitary executive theory and shows that they did not expressly grant emergency powers to the President in the Constitution. It introduces the concept of original intent and explains that it increasingly influences judges and constitutional scholarship, making this chapter's treatment of the creation of the Constitution important to establishing room to take lessons from democracy loss abroad into account in adjudication of separation of powers disputes. 2The Rise of Presidential Power chapter abstractThis chapter provides an account of the rise of presidential power from the Founding through the late twentieth century. It explores the historical roots of the fear that presidential control over the executive branch of government and the growth of presidential emergency powers would undermine democracy and the rule of law. It canvasses the controversies (judicial and political) over presidential removal of federal officials from office (which the unitary executive theory insists must be free from restriction), from Andrew Jackson's effort to circumvent legislation creating the National Bank to Richard Nixon's attempt to thwart investigation of crimes undertaken to tilt the electoral playing field. It explains how congressional delegation of authority has enhanced the President's power over time. It also shows that the Supreme Court imposed constraints on emergency powers throughout this period, recognizing this presidential power as dangerous to democracy. 3Declining to Adjudicate Claims Against the President chapter abstractThis chapter explains that the courts have augmented presidential power by frequently refusing to adjudicate claims that the President has exceeded his constitutional authority. It explains the key justiciability doctrines that the courts have used to shield Presidents from allegations of misconduct—standing, ripeness, and the political question doctrine. It establishes that the courts have applied these doctrines quite strictly, and sometimes grossly distorted them, to shield allegations of presidential usurpation of power from judicial scrutiny. At the same time, it has been quite liberal in entertaining challenges to congressional efforts to check and balance the executive branch. It shows that the courts' refusal to entertain challenges to unilateral presidential wars has aided the transfer of the war power from Congress to the President. 4Implied Presidential and Congressional Power chapter abstractThis chapter explains that the modern Supreme Court has generously granted the President extensive implied powers at the expense of Congress, while declining to apply the implied-powers doctrine to sustain efforts by Congress to check the executive branch. It shows that the Court's implied-powers jurisprudence has not only expanded the President's foreign affairs power, but also eroded checks and balances domestically. It emphasizes the role of the unitary executive theory and the legislative veto in undermining checks on emergency powers and undermining of the rule of law. This chapter fills a gap in the literature by defining the concept of implied power. It shows that propresidential bias in the Court's treatment of constitutional custom, means/ends reasoning, and congressional intent helps explain the asymmetric results of the Court's implied-power jurisprudence. 5The Specter of Dictatorship: Poland, Hungary and Turkey chapter abstractThis chapter, the heart of the book, examines the role of executive power in undermining democracy in Poland, Hungary, and Turkey. In all three cases, creation of centralized control over the executive branch of government paved the way for autocracy, leading to politicized use of prosecution to undermine political opponents, shrinking of the media available to dissenters, and tilting the electoral playing field. This analysis focuses primarily on centralization of control over prosecution, media authorities, and electoral commissions. In Hungary and Turkey, abuse of emergency powers accelerated the establishment of autocracy. These countries' autocrats eroded democracy with the support of a political party enjoying the support of at least a substantial minority of voters. Party members in Parliament helped destroy democracy by voting in lockstep fashion to support "reforms" undermining independent agencies and prosecutorial independence. 6Parallels to America's Democratic Erosion chapter abstractThis chapter examines the extent to which America's democratic erosion mirrors that of Hungary, Turkey, and Poland. It explains that acceptance of the unitary executive theory has significantly undermined the rule of law, just as centralization of power has in the case studies. It analyzes the extent to which we have emulated the autocracies in tilting the electoral playing field and undermining independent media. It explains that partisan division has led to a breakdown of deliberative democracy very similar to that seen Chapter 5's case studies. It also analyzes our vulnerability to judicial capture and abuse of the war power. It argues that judges lack the capacity to predict the extent of democratic decline, given its complexity and the role of unpredictable shocks in stimulating autocracy, but that we have serious long-term vulnerabilities. 7Judicial Treatment of Presidential Power in an Age of Democratic Decline chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the factors that should influence the courts' separation-of-powers cases. Generally, it counsels judges to give more weight to the possibility of democratic decline than to potential policy mistakes, and to allow for the possibility of presidential bad faith. It shows that national security means protecting the American People's control over the government, not just preventing of physical attacks. It suggests rejecting or limiting the reach of the unitary executive theory, bolstering presidential legal accountability, and relying less on justiciability doctrines to shield presidential actions from judicial review. It also analyzes the role of judicial decision making in protecting and restoring democracy, showing that judicial decisions can aid political forces seeking to preserve or revive an ailing democracy. Conclusion: chapter abstractThis chapter briefly recapitulates the book's lessons. It affirms that the judiciary can and should contribute to democracy protection by considering the possibility of presidential bad faith in making decisions, since the presidency, not the judiciary, constitutes the principal threat to democracy. It calls for the judiciary to reject or at least limit the unitary executive theory, to think of national security in terms of preserving popular sovereignty, and to relax justiciability barriers to adjudicating challenges to excessive presidential power. It argues that the tendency to think of autocracy as a product of a coup, instead of as the product of gradual democratic decline, can blind us to the possibility of autocracy in America, but that signs of serious democratic decline abound. It suggests that judges need to take the possibility of losing a democracy as seriously as the founders of this country did.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Blueprint Chapter 2: Building Chapter 3: Remedies Chapter 4: Collapse Chapter 5: Remains Coda Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis collection of twenty-one essays on administrative law provides a snapshot of cutting-edge thinking in this important field, which forms part of the practice of a large portion of the legal profession and affects the lives of all Americans from air quality to car safety and to social security.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Jerry L. Mashaw's creative tension with the field of administrative law Nicholas R. Parrillo; Part I. An Internal Law of Administration: 1. Jerry L. Mashaw, the due process revolution, and the limits of judicial power Thomas W. Merrill; 2. The management side of due process in the service-based welfare state Charles F. Sabel and William H. Simon; 3. Jerry L. Mashaw and the public law curriculum Peter L. Strauss; 4. From the history to the theory of administrative constitutionalism Sophia Z. Lee; 5. Cyberdelegation and the administrative state Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar; Part II. Internal Law and the President: 6. Internal administrative law before and after the APA Gillian E. Metzger and Kevin M. Stack; 7. Boundary disputes: Jerry L. Mashaw's anti-formalism, constitutional interpretation and the Unitary Presidency Peter M. Shane; 8. Cost-benefit analysis of financial regulation: an institutional perspective Richard L. Revesz; Part III. Adjudication and Divergent Models of Justice: 9. Meeting the Mashaw test for consistency in administrative decisionmaking Paul Verkuil; 10. Varieties of bureaucratic justice: building on Mashaw's typology Robert A. Kagan; 11. Enforcement adjudication at the SEC David Zaring; Part IV. The Agency and its External Environment: 12. Pathways to auto safety: assessing the role of the national highway traffic safety administration Robert L. Rabin; 13. A comparison of the cultures and performance of a modern agency and a nineteenth century agency Richard J. Pierce, Jr; Part V. Remapping the Administrative State's Development: 14. On the emergence of the administrative petition: innovations in nineteenth-century indigenous North America Daniel Carpenter; 15. Putting the 'public' in public administration: the rise of the public utility idea William J. Novak; 16. Lochner and property Edward Rubin; Part VI. 'The Agency' as More than a Black Box: 17. Supervising outsourcing: the need for better design of blended governance Nina A. Mendelson; 18. Government market participation as conflicted government Jon D. Michaels; 19. State regulatory capacity and administrative: law and governance under globalization Richard B. Stewart; Conclusion. The inside out perspective: a first person account Jerry L. Mashaw.

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Book SynopsisA central concern about the robustness of democratic rule in new democracies is the concentration of power in the executive branch and the potential this creates for abuse. This concern is felt particularly with regard to the concentration of legislative power. Checking Presidential Power explains the levels of reliance on executive decrees in a comparative perspective. Building on the idea of institutional commitment, which affects the enforcement of decision-making rules, Palanza describes the degree to which countries rely on executive decree authority as more reliance may lead to unbalanced presidential systems and will ultimately affect democratic quality. Breaking new ground by both theorizing and empirically analyzing decree authority from a comparative perspective, this book examines policy making in separation of powers systems. It explains the choice between decrees and statutes, and why legislators are sometimes profoundly engaged in the legislative process and yet other timTrade Review'Palanza brings formidable tools to bear in this book - sophisticated theory, extensive data, deep knowledge of her cases, and clear writing. She tests her ideas with extensive studies of policy making in Brazil and Argentina, as well as with rigorous analysis drawing data from across Latin America. She shows us what factors push presidents toward unilateral policymaking and what institutional conditions foster legislative influence. This book is a real achievement.' John M. Carey, John Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences, Dartmouth College'Palanza's Checking Presidential Power is a long overdue corrective to the often uncritical assumption that presidents are all-powerful and that legislatures (and courts) are mere bystanders in Latin America's separation-of-powers systems. By refusing to consider presidents and their decrees in isolation, Palanza's book gives us a much more holistic account, both theoretically and empirically, of how policy gets made in separation-of-powers systems.' Brian F. Crisp, Washington University, St Louis'This is a great book. It is the first to provide a comprehensive and positive theory of the choice between policy-making by decree versus statute. Unlike previous work, it places the decision about the relative incidence of executive decrees in a broad strategic context, which includes not only the president but also legislators, the courts and interest groups. Palanza offers detailed empirical analysis of decree usage in several countries, as well as, to my knowledge, the first cross-national analysis of law-making by decree in presidential systems. This book will be required for anyone interested in executive politics, institutional analysis, presidentialism, democratization, Latin American and many other areas.' José Antonio Cheibub, Mary Thomas Marshall Professor in Liberal Arts, Texas A & M University'In her groundbreaking book, Palanza (Pontificia Universidad de Chile) examines policy making in separation of powers systems by explaining the levels of reliance on executive decrees that may lead to unbalanced presidential systems and ultimately low democratic quality. The author accurately defends the long-held belief that policy enacted by decree is less stable than policy enacted by the widely supported congressional statutes.' K. M. Zaarour, ChoiceTable of Contents1. Introduction: a choice of paths behind each policy; 2. Decrees versus statutes: choice of legislative paths in separation of powers systems; 3. Institutions and institutional commitment; 4. Reinstatement of congressional decision rights: Brazil; 5. A corollary of low levels of institutional commitment: Argentina; 6. The choice of legislative paths in comparative perspective; 7. Conclusions: rules, institutional commitment, and checks on presidents.

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Book SynopsisThe global distribution of power is changing. But how should we make sense of this moment of transition?With the rise of new powers and the decline of seemingly unchallenged US dominance in world politics, a conventional wisdom is gaining ground that a new multipolar order is taking shape. Yet multipolarity – an order with multiple centres of power – is variously used as a description of the current distribution of power, of the likely shape of a future global order, or even as a prescription for how power ‘should’ be distributed in the international system.To understand the power of the different – and sometimes competing – narratives on offer today about the changing global order, a global perspective is necessary. This book explores how the concept of a multipolar order is being used for different purposes in different national contexts. From rising powers to established powers, contemporary debates are analysed by a set of leading scholars to provide in-depth insight into the use and abuse of a widely employed but rarely explored concept.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 The utility and limits of polarity analysis – Benjamin ZalaPart I: Rising and re-emerging powers2 ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall’: China and the concept of multipolarity in the post-Cold War era – Nicholas Khoo and Zhang Qingmin3 India: Seeking multipolarity, favouring multilateralism, pursuing multialignment – Ian Hall4 Brazil: Pursuing a multipolar mirage? – Luis L. Schenoni5 Multipolarity in Russia: A philosophical and practical understanding – Elena ChebankovaPart II: The unipole and its allies6 Does the United States face a multipolar future? Washington’s response through the lens of technology – James S. Johnson7 Japan and the dangers of multipolarisation – H.D.P. Envall8 The uses and abuses of the polarity discourse in UK foreign and defence politics – David BlagdenConclusion9 Debating the distribution of power and status in the early twenty-first century – Benjamin ZalaIndex

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Book SynopsisTitle 14 presents regulations governing the activities of the Department of Transportation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the areas of aeronautics and space, including: aircraft, airmen, airspace, air traffic, certification of air carriers and operations, and airports. Additions and revisions to this section of the code are posted annually by January. Publication follows within six months.

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Book SynopsisTitle 16 presents regulations governing commercial practices and covers product-specific bans, standards, and requirements; policy on imported products, importers, and foreign manufacturers; export of non-complying, misbranded, or banned products; and commission notification of foreign government. Additions and revisions to this section of the code are posted annually by January. Publication follows within six months.

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Book SynopsisTitle 40 presents regulations governing care of the environment from the 14 subchapters of Chapter I and from the provisions regarding the Council on Environmental Quality found in Chapter V. Programs addressing air, water, pesticides, radiation protection, and noise abatement are included. Practices for waste and toxic materials disposal and clean-up are also prescribed. Additions and revisions to this section of the code are posted annually by July. Publication follows within six months.

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Book SynopsisThe CFRs are authored by the Office of the Federal Register.

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Book SynopsisThe power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will be recalled. ~ George Washington

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRich in historical anecdotes about instances when the strange antics to delay Senate decisions actually led to better policy making, this book will become the 'go to' authority on the filibuster. This volume should be valuable to general readers, students, and research faculty. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *An impassioned and cogent defense of the Senate's most controversial practice. * Kirkus Reviews *Arenberg and Dove successfully explain why, despite its flaws, the filibuster is worth preserving or reforming rather than eliminating. (Reviewing a previous edition) * ForeWord Reviews *Regardless of whether you agree with [the authors'] conclusions, the book will be a must read for anyone who wants to be a part of the debate about how to improve the function of the Senate. (Reviewing a previous edition) * Roll Call *Legislative battles over healthcare and the federal budget have spurred demands to reform or abolish the filibuster in the US Senate. The authors argue that the filibuster is fundamental to the very character of the Senate, and that it protects the rights of the minority in American politics. * Survival *Clearly written and amply supported, Defending the Filibuster is a must-read for all Americans, especially during these highly contentious times. * joannalouisejohnson.com *Table of ContentsForeword by Senator Olympia SnowePreface1. Soul of the Senate2. Filibuster, Cloture, and Unfettered Amendment3. History of the Filibuster4. Polarized Politics and the Use and Abuse of the Filibuster5. Criticisms of the Filibuster6. The Dangers of Overzealous Reform7. Related Tactics: Holds8. Related Tactics: Filling the Amendment Tree9. Circumventing the Filibuster: Reconciliation10. Reforming the Filibuster: The Constitutional Option11. Reforming the Filibuster: The Nuclear Option12. Bring in the Cots13. Defending the Filibuster14. Looking AheadNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisExamines the outsized influence of jurors on prosecutorial discretion Thanks to television and popular media, the jury is deeply embedded in the American public's imagination of the legal system. For the country's federal prosecutors, however, jurors have become an increasingly rare sight. Today, in fact, less than 2% of their cases will proceed to an actual jury trial. And yet, when federal prosecutors describe their jobs and what the profession means to them, the jury is a central theme. Anna Offit's The Imagined Juror examines the counterintuitive importance of jurors in federal prosecutors' work at a moment when jury trials are statistically in decline. Drawing on extensive field research among federal prosecutors, the book represents the first ethnographic study of US attorneys, according to legal scholar Annelise Riles. It describes a world of legal practice in which jurors are frequently summonedas make-believe audiences for proposed arguments, hypothetical evaluators of evidencTrade Review"A must-read for anyone concerned about the state of the US justice system. The Imagined Juror makes a compelling case for the continued importance of juries, even in the age of the disappearing trial." -- William Garriott, Drake University"Offit’s extraordinary access to the workings of federal prosecutors as well as to public proceedings reveals the pervasive influence of juries on criminal cases, both direct and indirect. This book argues convincingly that the infrequency of trials is not a valid indicator of the impact of the jury on our criminal justice system." -- David Engel, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University at Buffalo School of Law"Provides an original and indispensable vantage point from which to view criminal procedure in the US, with implications for questions of power and the origins of mass incarceration." -- Ronald Niezen, author of #HumanRights: The Technologies and Politics of Justice Claims in Practice"...an unquestionably valuable contribution to the literature on prosecutors. Offit opens a window into the inner workings of a federal prosecutor’s office at a time when interest in prosecutors is at its height. The Imagined Juror answers the important question of what prosecutors do and why." * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *"Drawing on extensive field research, Offit (law, Southern Methodist Univ.) performs an ethnographic study of US attorneys to reveal an a priori truth about how federal prosecutors use hypothetical juries to navigate the many conflicts they encounter within criminal proceedings…As a criminal defense attorney, this reviewer sees her personal experiences reflected in Offit's writings, authenticating how hypothetical juries influence prosecutors and, ultimately, impact the criminal justice system writ large." -- A. A. Walden, Elmira College * CHOICE *"Drawing on extensive field research among US federal prosecutors, Offit describes a world in which even the question of moving forward with a prosecution often hinges on how federal prosecutors assume a jury will react—an exercise where the perspectives of the public are imagined and incorporated into every stage of trial preparation. " * Law & Social Inquiry *

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Book SynopsisExamines the decisions of US presidents to appoint judges from diverse backgrounds to federal courtsIn Diversifying the Courts, Nancy Scherer addresses why presidents chooseor don't chooseto diversify the federal courts by race, ethnicity, and gender. She explores how and why the issue became a bitter partisan fight in the first place, tracking the controversial historyand politicsof court diversification. Drawing on polls, political experiments, surveys and one-on-one interviews, Scherer illuminates the complicated relationship between diversity and court legitimacy. She shows us how diverse representation can positively impact perceptions of the court among women and racial minorities, while having a negative impact on the perceptions among white people and men. Ultimately, Diversifying the Courts provides insight into the impact of gender, race, and ethnicity on the courts, illuminating some of the major challenges facing the American judicial system in the years that lie ahead.Trade Review"Diversifying the Courts systematically examines the link between racial and gender diversity and the legitimacy of the federal judiciary. Nancy Scherer shows us that increased diversity does not automatically yield greater legitimacy toward the federal bench among all members of the public, resulting in a backlash against the courts." -- Eric Waltenburg, author of Choosing Where to Fight: Organized Labor and the Modern Regulatory State, 1948-1987"This book shows us why efforts to diversify the federal bench over the past four decades have done little to increase the legitimacy of the courts. Scherer compellingly explores this diversity dilemma, offering important insights about the future of our courts." -- Michael Zilis, author of The Rights Paradox: How Group Attitudes Shape US Supreme Court Legitimacy"[Scherer] shares takeaways from conversations with sitting district court justices and the empirical results of surveys on support for the courts and specific judges’ decisions given varying conditions of diversity." * Trial *

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Book SynopsisHow has the modern conservative movement thrived in spite of the lack of harmony among its constituent members? What, and who, holds together its large corporate interests, small-government libertarians, social and racial traditionalists, and evangelical Christians? Raised Right pursues these questions through a cultural study of three iconic conservative figures: National Review editor William F. Buckley, Jr., President Ronald Reagan, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Examining their papers, writings, and rhetoric, Jeffrey R. Dudas identifies what he terms a "paternal rights discourse"—the arguments about fatherhood and rights that permeate their personal lives and political visions. For each, paternal discipline was crucial to producing autonomous citizens worthy and capable of self-governance. This paternalist logic is the cohesive agent for an entire conservative movement, uniting its celebration of "founding fathers," past and present, constitutional and biological. Yet this discourse produces a paradox: When do authoritative fathers transfer their rights to these well-raised citizens? This duality propels conservative politics forward with unruly results. The mythology of these American fathers gives conservatives something, and someone, to believe in—and therein lies its timeless appeal. Trade Review"I began this book a skeptic and finished it a convert. Dudas argues that the origin of modern American conservatism can be found in the biographies of three American Conservative icons, each of whom had a dysfunctional father but found substitutes in our Founding Fathers, and a myth of rights of paternal authority. A true tour de force." -- Malcolm M. Feeley * University of California at Berkeley *"Raised Right offers an imaginative, incisive, and incendiary interpretation of modern political conservativism in the United States, focusing in particular on its paradoxical discourses about paternal authority and the rights of self-governing citizens. Dudas has produced a stunning analysis of enduring themes in contemporary American political culture." -- Michael McCann * University of Washington *"Dudas's rumination on the fathers of contemporary conservatism, real and fantastic, and how they haunt the movement's ideology is both novel and provocative. Raised Right ambitiously articulates a linkage between law and fatherly authority that underlies much of the driving force in the right's social and economic agenda. A must-read for anyone curious about the roots of conservatism or concerned about its future trajectory." -- Claire Rasmussen * University of Delaware *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Raised Right chapter abstractChapter 1 is the book's substantive and methodological introduction. It first, identifies the paternal rights discourse that suffuses modern American conservatism and introduces the book's argument that this discourse exerts multiple and paradoxical effects on the trajectory of both American conservatism and American politics writ large. Second, it situates the book's analysis of the paternal rights discourse in the scholarly traditions of interpretivism, on one hand, and critical social theory (including elements of critical legal, feminist, race, and psychoanalytic approaches), on the other hand. Chapter 1 thus develops the conceptual scaffolding on which the book rests. 2Something to Believe In: Modern American Conservatism and the Paternal Rights Discourse chapter abstractChapter 2 first investigates the large body of scholarship that details the rise of the conservative movement in modern America. While it establishes that the success of American conservatism depends on prominent movement figures who at once appeal to a mass public and gild the fractious tendencies of conservatism's member populations, the accumulated scholarship offers little in the way of understanding of how the figures accomplish this feat. The second half of the chapter corrects this scholarly omission by documenting the obsession of modern American conservative intellectuals with the intertwined discourses of paternal authority and individual rights. It was an obsession that received full articulation in the personal and political narratives of the influential conservative figures who are the subjects of Chapters 3-6. Accordingly, in addition to its contribution to the existing scholarship on modern American conservatism, Chapter 2 prepares readers for the analyses of movement icons that follow. 3Penetrating the Inner Sanctum: William F. Buckley Jr., Paternal Desire, and the Rights of Man chapter abstractChapter 3 investigates the legacy of William F. Buckley Jr., focusing on a neglected aspect of his career: the best-selling Blackford Oakes spy novels. The Oakes novels, produced between 1976 and 2005, are distinguished within Buckley's oeuvre because their fictional form allowed him to present his vision of virtuous American citizenship in crystalline terms, unencumbered by the contemporary, parochial concerns that dominated his political writing. Filtered through the hypermasculine and sexually voracious Cold War–era adventures of a protagonist with whom Buckley shared particular biographical elements, these novels contain stark ruminations on the character of the American nation and are his clearest articulation of the familial, gendered, and rights-based desires and fears that are central to American conservatism. This chapter shows how the Oakes novels prepared the way in fiction for the Reagan Revolution of the 1980's that elevated American conservatism to new heights of prominence. 4"The Greatest Nation on Earth": Ronald Reagan, Fathers, and the Rights of Americans chapter abstractThis chapter explores Ronald Reagan's use of the paternal rights discourse. Reagan's handwritten speeches, letters, and radio broadcasts make clear that this discourse was the unifying thread of his nearly thirty-year political career. Conjoining childhood submission to paternal authority with the mature, responsible practice of rights later in life, Reagan's normative vision of American citizenship led him to at once champion the rights of America's "average" citizens and attack the rights of the nation's subversives – its "welfare queens," "wild animals," and "little criminals." As Reagan's attacks on student protesters when governor of California and his conduct of the Contra war when president of the United States make clear, the paternal rights discourse encouraged Reagan to pursue harshly punitive, frequently troubling, and ultimately ineffective measures in the name of fathers and rights. Reagan's paternal rights discourse nevertheless worked as a potent intellectual template for contemporaneous and future conservative politics. 5All the Rage: Clarence Thomas, Daddy, and the Tragedy of Rights chapter abstractThis chapter turns to current United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, revered by conservatives as "the leading conservative in America today." Although Thomas is widely seen as the "silent justice," he has offered many speeches, interviews, and memoirs that are highly revealing. Using this primary source material, this chapter finds that Thomas's paternal rights discourse unites him with the fathers of modern American conservatism (e.g., Buckley and Reagan), but has ambivalent consequences for Thomas himself. These consequences manifest in Thomas's personal life and in his jurisprudential philosophy of "originalism," which demands fidelity to the constitutional desires of the founding fathers. Thomas's jurisprudence thus evokes the abiding paradox inherent in American conservatism's paternal rights discourse. Unable to successfully navigate this paradoxical tension, Thomas embodies the tragedy of American conservatism: his devotion to paternal authority prevents him from emerging as the autonomous, self-governing citizen of his, and conservatism's, dreams. 6A Nightmare Walking: The Haunting of Modern American Conservatism chapter abstractThe tension between paternal domination and self-governance that courses through American conservatism's paternal rights discourse raises a final question that is the subject of Chapter 6, the concluding chapter. Indeed, considering the paradoxical, troubling consequences that the paternal rights discourse exerts on modern American conservatism, why is it the movement's defining creed? To which deeply seated fears and desires does the movement's devotion to paternal authority point? How, finally, are we to account for the paternal rights discourse that haunts modern American conservatism? This chapter employs a unique mélange of critical theory sources and popular culture texts, including Julia Kristeva's concept of "melancholia" and Jack Sholder's A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, in order to assess the enduring appeal of American conservatism's paradoxical celebration of both fathers and rights.

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