Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced [Hardcover]

Matthew Crenson (Author), Benjamin Ginsberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2007

A new history and evaluation of the "imperial presidency."

Recent presidents have exploited the power of the American presidency more fully than their predecessors—and with greater consequence than the framers of the Constitution anticipated.

This book, in the tradition of Arthur Schlesinger's great work The Imperial Presidency (1973), explores how American presidents—especially those of the past three decades—have increased the power of the presidency at the expense of democracy. Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg provide a fascinating history of this trend, showing that the expansion of presidential power dates back over one hundred years. Presidential Power also looks beyond the president's actions in the realm of foreign policy to consider other, more hidden, means that presidents have used to institutionalize the power of the executive branch.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As envisioned by our founders, the office of chief executive was to exercise primarily a supervisory role, curbing the excesses of a popularly elected legislature. During wartime, of course, the powers of the executive were expected to increase. However, as Arthur Schlesinger indicated in The Imperial Presidency (1973), the powers of the presidency have vastly expanded, even in peacetime. Crenson and Ginsberg, both political science professors, explain the reasons and consequences. They convincingly assert that the decline in popular participation in our political life has led to a dangerous power vacuum, this manifesting itself most clearly in the diminished role of political parties in selecting presidential candidates. Instead, presidential candidates today are generally able to define themselves without being moored to the beliefs of their party; thus, if elected, they feel free to pursue their own agendas. At the same time, the public withdrawal from politics has undermined both the prestige and the power of Congress. The result is a great increase in the power of the presidency, abetted by an accelerating expansion of the bureaucratic state. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Matthew Crenson is professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University.

Benjamin Ginsberg is David Bernstein Professor of Politics at The John Hopkins University and the author of numerous books, including The Captive Public and Politics by Other Means.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393064883
• ISBN-13: 978-0393064889
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #658,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The long haul on the resurgence of the imperial presidency, June 9, 2008

By 

H. T. Lelieveldt (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced (Hardcover)

There has been a flurry of books about what Charlie Savage in Takeover - which is one of them - has termed the 'return of the imperial presidency'. Now while most of the books in particular seem to blame the Bush-Cheney administration for the usurpation of executive powers, Crenson and Ginsberg provide a much needed historical and structural analysis of the phenomenon, going back to the beginnings of the Republic. Crenson and Ginsberg convincingly argue that one of the more structural causes of the rise of presidential power is the weakening of the American party system. In the old days parties had a much stronger grip on the selection of presidential candidates. Nowadays, due to the primary system, campaigns are all about personalities who do not merely want to serve their country but aspire nothing less than change history. So if you want to go beyond the last eight years and the post 9/11 analysis of the rise of executive power, this is your best pick.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awsome, May 29, 2009

By 

Robin Hutchison "justop" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced (Hardcover)

This book was great, I had to read it for my AP government class and write a 4 page paper on it.. I got an A+!!

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Presidential power is out of control, November 22, 2008

By 

Thomas W. Sulcer (Summit, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced (Hardcover)

The author is right: presidential power IS unchecked and unbalanced. According to the Constitution, the executive branch was supposed to enforce, not make, the laws; but because the executive branch controls numerous federal "alphabet soup" agencies such as the NIH and the EPA, it can make legislation indirectly without much oversight from Congress, since these agencies have considerable authority in numerous areas. Presidents can start wars; Congress was supposed to have this power. A further indication of unbalanced executive power is the so-called signing statements, which the last few presidents (both Democratic and Republican ones) have begun using more often. When signing a law, the president makes a statement saying, in effect, how the president interprets or understands the law and how it might be enforced -- this puts a spin on a law. This is a recent practice which has been criticized by the American Bar Association as "unconstitutional". Under the theory of the "unitary executive", the executive branch is seeking to consolidate control over a vast rule-making bureaucracy. The Congress, in contrast, is muddled, ridden with partisanship, stuffed with incumbents who have engineered ways to keep getting elected; over 90% of congresspersons seeking re-election are elected because of (1) access to cash (2) gerrymandering (3) free mailings known as "franking privileges". The Congress has trouble reining in the executive branch since it must win consensus from diverse groups. So, the only real check on the executive branch appears to be the courts, although as professor Adam Tomkins points out in his book "Our Republican Constitution" (our=Britain's), the judicial branch is poorly suited as a counterweight to executive authority, since it must wait for court decisions to bubble up from lower courts before it can make rulings (and it's limited by what court cases do, in fact, come under its jurisdiction.) The risk is that a serious terrorism incident may push a vastly powerful executive branch to seize even more powers under the excuse of protecting the public. Tocqueville warned about the concentration of power back in the 1830s in his masterwork "Democracy in America".

An excellent book.

Thomas W. Sulcer
author of "The Second Constitution of the United States"
(free on web -- google title above + sulcer)