all Products American Government Hardcover Books Political Science

Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation

Dearborn, John A.

Select Format

Print Book

Hardcover

Item Condition New

$119.88 USD $119.88 USD

$119.88 USD

~~$119.88 USD~~ $119.88 USD

Sale Sold out

Shipping calculated at checkout.

Quantity

View full details

That the president uniquely represents the national interest is a political truism, yet this idea has been transformational, shaping the efforts of Congress to remake the presidency and testing the adaptability of American constitutional government.

The emergence of the modern presidency in the first half of the twentieth century transformed the American government. But surprisingly, presidents were not the primary driving force of this change--Congress was. Through a series of statutes, lawmakers endorsed presidential leadership in the legislative process and augmented the chief executive's organizational capacities.

But why did Congress grant presidents this power? In Power Shifts, John A. Dearborn shows that legislators acted on the idea that the president was the best representative of the national interest. Congress subordinated its own claims to stand as the nation's primary representative institution and designed reforms that assumed the president was the superior steward of all the people. In the process, Congress recast the nation's chief executive as its chief representative.

As Dearborn demonstrates, the full extent to which Congress's reforms rested on the idea of presidential representation was revealed when that notion's validity was thrown into doubt. In the 1970s, Congress sought to restore its place in a rebalanced system, but legislators also found that their earlier success at institutional reinvention constrained their efforts to reclaim authority. Chronicling the evolving relationship between the presidency and Congress across a range of policy areas, Power Shifts exposes a fundamental dilemma in an otherwise proud tradition of constitutional adaptation.

Accessories:

No Accessory

Publisher

UNIV OF CHICAGO PR

Bisac Major Subject

Political Science

Bisac Minor Subject

American Government - Executive Branch

Binding Type

Hardcover

Country Of Origin

Number Of Units

Length

9.0 Inches

Barcode Indicator

EAN

Width

6.0 Inches

Publication Date

2021-09-27

Height

0.81 Inches

ISBN 10

022679766X

Weight

1.4 Pounds

Book EAN

9780226797663

Target Audiance

Adults

User reviews will be displayed here...

Item added to your cart

Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation