The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America
- ISBN-10
- 1641771216
- ISBN-13
- 9781641771214
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 304
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-09-15
- Publisher
- Encounter Books
- Author
- James R. Copland
Description
America is highly polarized around elections, but unelected actors make many of the decisions that affect our lives. In this lucid history, James R. Copland explains how unaccountable agents have taken over much of the U.S. government apparatus. Congress has largely abdicated its authority. “Independent” administrative agencies churn out thousands of new regulations every year. Courts have enabled these rulemakers to expand their powers beyond those authorized by law—and have constrained executive efforts to rein in the bureaucratic behemoth. No ordinary citizen can know what is legal and what is not. There are some 300,000 federal crimes, 98 percent of which were created by administrative action. The proliferation of rules gives enormous discretion to unelected enforcers, and the severity of sanctions can be ruinous to citizens who unwittingly violate a regulation. Outside the bureaucracy, private attorneys regulate our conduct through lawsuits. Most of the legal theories underlying these suits were never voted upon by our elected representatives. A combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by litigators has built an onerous and expensive legal regime. Finally, state and local officials may be accountable to their own voters, but some reach further afield, pursuing agendas to dictate the terms of national commerce. These new antifederalists are subjecting the citizens of Wyoming and Mississippi to the whims of the electorates of New York and San Francisco—contrary to the constitutional design. In these ways, the unelected have assumed substantial control of the American republic, upended the rule of law, given the United States the world’s costliest legal system, and inverted the Constitution’s federalism. Copland caps off his account with ideas for charting a corrective course back to democratic accountability.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Rise of the Unelected: Democracy and the New Separation of Powers
By Frank VibertThis book will be of interest to specialists and general readers with an interest in modern democracy as well as policy makers, think tanks and journalists.
-
Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State
By Paul TuckerTucker presents guiding principles for ensuring that central bankers and other unelected policymakers remain stewards of the common good.
-
What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People
By Benjamin Ginsberg, Jennifer Bachner"This book reveals a surprising ignorance on the part of unelected federal officials regarding the life circumstances and opinions of average Americans as well as an attitude of condescension"--
-
Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress 2011
By Bernan Press, Suzanne StruglinskiStaff of the U.S. Congress 2011 Suzanne Struglinski ... Sullivan spelled out the challenges that lay ahead in the 112th Congress, given that the Senate's two-year version of the fiscal 2011 FAA reauthorization bill is quite different ...
-
The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress 2008
By Lisa FriedmanJ.D., Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, 1996. ... from the University of Wisconsin, Duhnke joined the U.S. Navy and attended Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. ... 508 TheAlmanac at the.
-
Unelected Representatives
By Michael J. MalbinUnelected Representatives
-
Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U. S. Congress 2011
By Bernan Press StaffThese are the staffers who work with and support the representatives and senators in various important roles that help to enact change or refine existing laws and codes that govern our nation.
-
The Accountability of Expertise: Making the Un-Elected Safe for Democracy
By Erik O. EriksenHow could they possibly be legitimate? This book is of key interest to scholars and students of democracy, governance, and more broadly to political and administrative science as well as the Science Technology Studies (STS).
-
Rise of the Unelected, The; Democracy and the Separation of Powers
By Frank VibertThis book will be of interest to specialists and general readers with an interest in modern democracy as well as policy makers, think tanks and journalists.
-
Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom
By Jay SekulowI'm left to wonder, was the EPA helping the Obama administration obscure its true agenda before the 2012 elections? ... the Landmark Legal Foundation—a conservative legal organization headed by my friend Mark Levin—filed a Freedom of ...