Description
Book SynopsisLegal scholar Peter M. Shane confronts U.S. presidential entitlement and offers a more reasonable way of conceptualizing our constitutional presidency in the twenty-first century. In the eyes of modern-day presidentialists, the United States Constitution's vesting of executive power means today what it meant in 1787. For them, what it meant in 1787 was the creation of a largely unilateral presidency, and in their view, a unilateral presidency still best serves our national interest. Democracy's Chief Executive challenges each of these premises, while showing how their influence on constitutional interpretation for more than forty years has set the stage for a presidency ripe for authoritarianism. Democracy's Chief Executive explains how dogmatic ideas about expansive executive authority can create within the government a psychology of presidential entitlement that threatens American democracy and the rule of law. Tracing today's aggressive presidentialism to a steady consolidati
Trade Review"[A] useful and timely book." * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *
Table of ContentsContents
Prologue:
Toward a Pro-Democracy Constitutional Presidency
Part One
Aggressive Presidentialism:
Originalism Done Badly
1 • From the “Unitary” to the “Entitled” Executive
2 • The “Chief Prosecutor” Myth
3 • Politicizing the “Deep State”:
Presidents and the Bureaucracy
Part Two
Constitutional Interpretation for Democracy
4 • The Originalist Mirage of Presidential Power
5 • Interpreting Democracy’s Constitution
Part Three
Democracy’s Chief Executive
6 • Democracy’s Presidency
7 • Breaking the Grip of Presidentialism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Suggested Further Reading
Index
