When Nixon ascended to power in 1968, his chief of staff distributed copies of Richard Neustadt’s “Presidential Power” (1960) – a classic of political science – to all the president’s advisors. After the Watergate scandal (1974), one of these advisers warned Neustadt: “You are responsible.”
The main message of the book is that the constitutional powers of the American executive were very limited comparatively speaking. The focus was on executive-legislative relations. I will list some examples of the executive’s weakness. Nixon distorted the lesson and abused the presidential powers. More than that: it used the institutional presidency in criminal schemes that led to its impeachment.
The background problem was of institutional design. But there was another question at stake: the lesson is that when a criminal president comes to power threatens the entire political system.
About the US state states that the American case in the late 19th century was a “state of parties and courts”, in strong contrast with the state built by
European monarchies.
This state of affairs led Woodrow Wilson, former president of (1913-1921) to characterize the American political system as “” and not presidentialism. Congress itself in this period created by delegation independent regulatory agencies.
During the Watergate scandal, the “Saturday night massacre” (resignation of three attorneys general in a single day due to Nixon pressures) shows that the US Federal Public Prosecutor-which is part of the Executive’s body department-is vulnerable to the interference of a president. The presidency is not weak for crime.
In the post-nixon context, the figure (exotic for international analysts) of the special independent attorney was created, which cannot be fired beyond inspector Generals (equivalent to CGU) with great independence, which were recently fired in mass.
This is a recurring issue in American history: the power of resignation of members of the persecution of special prosecutors who investigated Trump shows the continuity line with the Nixon era.
Dismissal power is an essential part of the call that has been used to intellectually legitimize Trump’s unilateral actions. The theory maintains that the executive has complete discretion on their entities and organs, which would include regulatory agencies and central banks. The “Tyranophobia” (Posner and Vermeule) in the United States, according to the theory, is an obstacle to fundamental institutional changes.
The United States face the dilemma of containing a constitutionally weak but strong president for abuse. But the decisive, often forgotten factor, is Congress control: this explains why Nixon was prevented (was minority in both houses) and Trump survived two impeachments.
Gift Link: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release seven free hits from any link per day. Just click on F Blue below.
