The Growth of Executive Power
By Kevin | Related entries in NewsOn this Fourth of July, I thought it might be interesting to examine the growing influence of the executive here in these United States. A lot of attention has been paid to President Bush, and more importantly Vice President Cheney’s own assertions that he can be a free agent who seamlessly moves back and forth between the Executive and Legislative Branches.
However, with all of the concern and attention given to the federal government, many of us have turned a blind eye to our own state capitals. In the past few decades, the power and range of American governors and mayors has expanded exponentially. Early state governments produced state constitutions that generally left the governor weak. Some states, for example Pennsylvania and Georgia, even established plural executives as a way to dilute the strength of the office.
A lot has changed in a couple hundred years. American governors are arguably stronger now than they’ve ever been before, which stands in sharp contrast with the initial intent of the founders. After all, the Declaration of Independence, among other things, stood as a repudiation of a single executive’s repeated record of “injuries and usurpations.” Every year we celebrate these words, but we appear to stand by while individuals (mostly white men) consolidate power around their offices. Consider the following:
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July 5th, 2007 at 7:41 am
[...] Donklephant notes that while people are complaining about the growth of Federal executive power, they’ve ignored the larger (quieter) growth of State executive power. [...]