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Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive
A powerful dissection of one of the fundamental problems in American governance today: the clash between presidents determined to redirect the nation through ever-tighter control of administration and an executive branch still organized to promote shared interests in steady hands, due deliberation, and expertise.
President Trump pitted himself repeatedly against the institutions and personnel of the executive branch. In the process, two once-obscure concepts came center stage in an eerie faceoff. On one side was the specter of a "Deep State" conspiracy--administrators threatening to thwart the will of the people and undercut the constitutional authority of the president they elected to lead them. On the other side was a raw personalization of presidential power, one that a theory of "the unitary executive" gussied up and allowed to run roughshod over reason and the rule of law. The Deep State and the unitary executive framed every major contest of the Trump presidency. Like phantom twins, they drew each other out.
President Trump pitted himself repeatedly against the institutions and personnel of the executive branch. In the process, two once-obscure concepts came center stage in an eerie faceoff. On one side was the specter of a "Deep State" conspiracy--administrators threatening to thwart the will of the people and undercut the constitutional authority of the president they elected to lead them. On the other side was a raw personalization of presidential power, one that a theory of "the unitary executive" gussied up and allowed to run roughshod over reason and the rule of law. The Deep State and the unitary executive framed every major contest of the Trump presidency. Like phantom twins, they drew each other out.
These conflicts are not new. Stephen Skowronek, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King trace the tensions between presidential power and the depth of the American state back through the decades and forward through the various settlements arrived at in previous eras. Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic is about the breakdown of settlements and the abiding vulnerabilities of a Constitution that gave scant attention to administrative power. Rather than simply dump on Trump, the authors provide a richly historical perspective on the conflicts that rocked his presidency, and they explain why, if left untamed, the phantom twins will continue to pull the American government apart. Now, in this expanded paperback edition, they address the tumultuous Trump-Biden transition and reflect more broadly on the problems of presidential democracy in America today.
Book Details
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publish Date: Mar 1st, 2021
- Pages: 304
- Language: English
- Edition: Revised - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.50in - 1.10in - 0.90lb
- EAN: 9780197543085
- Categories: • Comparative Politics• Public Affairs & Administration• Political Process - General
About the Author
Stephen Skowronek is Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political Science and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. He is the author of The Policy State: An American Predicament (2017, with Karen Orren), Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920 (1982), The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton, (1997), The Search for American Political Development (2004, with Karen Orren), and Presidential Leadership in Political Time: Reprise and Reappraisal (third edition 2020). Among other activities, he was co-founder of the journal Studies in American Political Development, which he edited between 1986 and 2007, and he provided the episode structure and thematic content for the PBS miniseries entitled The American President (Kunhardt Productions).
John A. Dearborn is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Dean's Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation (2021). He received the 2020 George C. Edwards III Award for Best Dissertation on Executive Politics as well as the 2020 E. E. Schattschneider Award for Best Dissertation on American Government from the American Political Science Association.
Desmond King is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of American Government at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. He works on racial inequality and the American state, and his publications include Making Americans: Immigration, Race and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy (2000), Separate and Unequal: African Americans and the US Federal Government (2007), The Unsustainable American State (2009, with Lawrence Jacobs), Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama's America (2011, with Rogers M Smith), and Fed Power: How Finance Wins (2016, with Lawrence R Jacobs). He is a Fellow of the Academia European, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy and the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Praise for this book
"This book's strength is the dissection of all the ways that Trump stripped away the depth built into the executive branch." -- Christopher S. Kelley, Miami University, Congress and the Presidency"This insightful book offers an original and important frame for understanding the internal dynamics of the contemporary American state. By examining the decades-long contest between advocates of state depth (also known as the 'deep state') and advocates of the unitary-executive theory, it makes possible a more coherent and historically grounded view of the defining struggles of the Trump administration ... one of the most illuminating books thus far on the Trump presidency." -- David C. Unger, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy"... powerful and succinct... one of the delights... is the facility with which the authors recount both relevant history and leading scholarship... what Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic does so effectively is to demonstrate the opportunity presented by Trump, who made no secret of his desire to amass presidential power, for long-time proponents of the unitary executive." -- Stephen Vladeck, Foreign Affairs"In this short, beautifully crafted, probing book, Stephen Skowronek, John Dearborn, and Desmond King bypass the crowded waters of constitutional interpretation and wade, instead, into those of political conflict and institutional design. So doing, they expose how the Unitary Executive Theory has burrowed into the administrative state and refashioned the terms of bureaucratic politics and contestation." -- William Howell, New Rambler"There's much to love about this book...At its core, Phantoms is part of a growing list of books with a first crack at the Trump legacy. Yet rather than look to the more bombastic elements of social media Trump, they zero-in on administrative Trump, the Trump who sat atop nearly 2 million federal workers.... More readable, big books should be written like this one. They stimulate big conversations and, we can hope, big solutions to big problems." -- Heath Brown, 3 Streams"... breaks new ground in theorizing and explaining a fundamental conundrum of presidential power... the rare book to occupy a field of its own, one that brings jointly to the fore two powerful histories and theories of the presidency. Students of the presidency have long needed to incorporate into our understanding of the presidency these twin histories, and, thankfully, because of this truly unique and sober-minded book, they may do so at a most propitious moment of national debate about the nation's most central political institution. Phantoms is thus a welcome and essential contribution to any discussion of the presidency and, it must be said, also, of the increasingly fragile state of republican institutions. " -- Saladin Ambar, Presidential Studies Quarterly"... skillfully grounds debates over Trumpâs actions in broader scholarly and public debates about presidential power... concise and elegantly written." -- Meena Bose, Political Science Quarterly"Phantoms brings a scholarly rigor to help understand the fever-dream notion of a 'Deep State' and recent advances of the unitary executive theory. This is an invaluable assessment of the legal and political forces trying to radically transform our government." -- US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island)"This nuanced interrogation of competing conceptions of American government--a Deep State based on a dense administrative apparatus transcending party and presidential administrations, and a unitary executive charting a direct relationship between president and people--combines theoretical clarity with uncommon learning. Written with cool reason, yet urgently, about a profound political conundrum, the book's quest for common ground offers a valuable act of democratic guardianship." -- Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University"This pathbreaking book elucidates the competing, interconnected pulls of the 'unitary executive' and the 'Deep State' in American political development. By training on their juncture, Phantoms unravels the implications of these powerful ideas for how our federal government functions--and its profound and wrenching dysfunctions." -- Daphna Renan, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School"Phantoms is a compelling account of a regime in distress. The authors deliver stunning insights into the excruciating stresses between presidential ambitions to singular executive power and a deep state capable of good governance but prone to hubris. Their conclusion that avoiding the complete loss of the value of depth requires systematic reimagining of institutional designs and relationships deserves the attention of all friends of the American republic." -- Brian J. Cook, author of The Fourth Branch: Reconstructing the Administrative State for the Commercial Republic"Skowronek, Dearborn, and King offer a brilliant analysis of the confrontation between 'the Deep State' and the unitary executive. Frictions between the president and the federal bureaucracy came to a head under Trump, but they predated his presidency and will remain a hallmark of American politics. Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic isÂessential reading for understanding how the entrenched tensions between effective administration and political accountability emerged and why they will persist." -- Margaret Weir, Wilson Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, Brown University"This book shows how Donald Trump's attacks on the 'Deep State' laid bare a profound tension that pre-dated Trump and will survive him. Americans now expect presidents to guide all their governance. They also demand a nonpartisan, professional administrative state. Neither is truly possible--so seeking to have both spurs a battle of phantoms that the nation needs to move beyond." -- Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania"Donald Trump's rants against the 'deep state' differed in degree but not in kind from his predecessors' complaints about the difficulty any chief executive has in directing the executive branch. Taking seriously arguments too often reduced to partisan caricature, this book masterfully traces the historical tension between bureaucratic accountability and independent expertise. In so doing the authors tee up a new agenda for the study of executive governance - and write a field guide for presidents hoping to close the gap between good politics and enlightened administration." -- Andrew Rudalevige, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College"In the best study of the Trump administration's executive actions to date, Phantoms of the Beleaguered Republic makes clear that Trump's war on expertise is more than a cult of personality; it is a reckoning in the long struggle to command a large and complex state that determines how fundamental American values are interpreted and enforced. Thoroughly researched and well-written, this book is a must read for those who want to understand just how much is at stake in the contest between defenders of a unitary executive and the champions of bureaucratic independence." -- Sidney M. Milkis, White Burkett Miller Professor of Governance and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia"Blending grand historical sweep with meticulous political analysis, this is a wise and illuminating look at the deep roots of our contemporary predicament. From the perpetual tension between the 'Deep State' and the 'unitary executive, ' Skowronek, Dearborn, and King fashion an important new interpretation of American political development." -- Robert C. Lieberman, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University