The Decline and Fall of the American Republic Review

I have just finished reading Bruce Ackerman’s The Decline and Fall of the American Republic, a good little book if I do say so myself. In fact, I had not planned on reading it at all and only did so as my friend was fortunate enough as to forget it in my car. Regardless of this story, the book puts out quite an idea, not radical as it has been around for a good amount of time, but nonetheless prescient and forceful. This is the idea of an “imperial” presidency.

As Ackerman dutifully notes in this volume this idea of an imperial presidency was first put forth by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in his aptly-named book The Imperial Presidency. But in his own volume written four decades after the original, Ackerman puts forth a methodical and systematic study of how the trends first seen by Schlesinger have matured and transformed. According to Ackerman areas for concern include the politicization of the military, the hyper-partisan Executive Branch lawyers, and the increasing use of sound bites as substitute for true political discourse.

These characteristics of our political culture, he says, will add to an ever increasing executive that will become one of the largest constitutional crises ever faced. For this the author presents a number of solutions that taken together start ameliorating the present condition. Among these is the idea of a national holiday with the sole purpose of having the voting public discuss the very policies and ideas that are most important to them. It would be run very much like a caucus with each candidate having a representative speak on their behalf and then allowing for discussion and debate to occur. Now, this would have the effect of diminishing the impact of television as well as increasing voter knowledge.

This is purely one of the many great little nuggets found in this book. I very much encourage you to read it. For if one were to judge the author by his stated purpose, namely to start a dialogue concerning this problem, it is a very good book and accomplishes this goal very deftly.