FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Peter Shane argues that post-1981 presidentialism is the enemy of the kind of deliberative governance that our founders intended. He shows how the Bush administration’s vision of the ‘unilateral’ Presidency—the reductio ad absurdum of presidentialism—not only misinterpreted the Constitution, but failed as a philosophy and strategy of government for meeting the nation’s needs. Shane goes well beyond bashing the last Administration, however. He explains how, if our government is to give us real solutions to our hard problems, the members of every Administration, as well as Congress and the judiciary, need to re-read the Constitution and take critical steps to reshape our legal culture in order to resuscitate public accountability and the principle of checks and balances. But, first, they need to read this book.”
Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission

Madison’s Nightmare
How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy

Though he campaigned on a theme of change, in his first months in office, Barack Obama has already asserted inherent presidential power in ways reminiscent of his Republican predecessors. While abandoning some of the Bush Administration’s more audacious claims, President Obama has asserted the state secrets privilege in national security litigation, resisted judicial review of enemy combatant detention in Afghanistan, issued signing statements suggesting constitutional reservations about bills he has signed into law, and pursued the Bush Administration’s Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq, even though it was never approved by Congress.

With Madison’s Nightmare, Peter Shane shows how ambitious assertions of presidential power are the logical outcome of a decades-long trend that has seen presidents of both parties have waged an assault on the basic checks and balances of the U.S. government. Starting with Reagan and the elder Bush, continuing under Clinton, and culminating most spectacularly under the recent Bush administration, this “aggressive presidentialism” has diminished the role of the other branches of government and led to ideological, inappropriate, and sometimes downright illegal actions. If we want our government to work as the Founders intended, simply electing a new president is not enough: both liberals and conservatives must launch a wide-ranging reform effort that will change all levels of government and support a renewed culture of accountability.

Peter M. Shane, is the Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He is a coauthor and coeditor of A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security and Public Information after September 11.

 

Please contact Levi Stahl at (773) 702-0289 or lstahl@press.uchicago.edu for more information.

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