I had the good fortune and privilege of completing both the
Constitution 101 and 102 courses, and the Federalist Papers through the
Hillsdale College online course offerings. The professors, fellows and
contributors to Hillsdale courses and publications are some of the very best
historian and policy experts in our nation.
The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of
Imprimis, a Hillsdale College publication. The article does a very good job of
explaining where we are as a nation politically and how we arrived here with
regard to our problem in the massive growth of the Federal Bureaucracy and
centralization of power in Washington.
The article is detailed and lengthy – BUT completely worth
the read. I highly recommend it!
Budget Battles and the Growth of the Administrative State
By John Marini
As seen in the recent government shutdown and the showdown
over the debt limit—the latest in a long series of such crises in
Washington—the federal budget stands at the heart of American politics. With
few exceptions, the budget has formed the battleground between the political
branches of the government—the executive and the legislative—in every
administration since LBJ’s Great Society. That starting point is not a
coincidence: The Great Society marked the beginning of an expansion of the
federal government and a centralization of political and administrative power
in Washington that had long been the domain of local and state governments. In
addition to destroying the fabric of federalism, this centralization had the
effect of undermining the separation of powers, making it difficult if not
impossible for Congress, the president, and the bureaucracy to function
amicably in pursuit of a national interest. What we have seen in subsequent
decades is the steady expansion of a modern administrative state that is
distinctively American in that it coexists with a limited government
Constitution. (A coexistence that is becoming more and more dysfunctional).
In America, the administrative state traces its origins to
the Progressive movement. Inspired by the theories of the German political
philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Progressives like Woodrow Wilson
believed that the erection of the modern state marked an “end of History,” a
point at which there is no longer any need for conflict over fundamental
principles.
…. America’s Founders
shared a radically different understanding, an understanding based not on
history but on nature. James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers that
factionalism is “sown in the nature of man”; thus there will always be
political conflict— which at its starkest is a conflict between justice, the
highest human aspiration concerning politics, and its opposite, tyranny. This
conflict between justice and tyranny occurs in every political order, the
Founders believed, because it occurs in every human soul. It is human nature
itself, therefore, that makes it necessary to place limits on the power of
government.
Progressive leaders were openly hostile to the Constitution
not only because it placed limits on government, but because it provided almost
no role for the federal government in the area of administration. The
separation of powers of government into three branches—the executive, the
legislative, and the judicial—inhibited the creation of a unified will and made
it impossible to establish a technical administrative apparatus to carry out
that will. …
… Congress was initially reluctant to give presidents the
authority to formulate budgets, partly because it infringed on Congress’s
constitutional prerogative—but also because it was still understood at the time
that the separation of powers stood as a barrier to tyranny and as a protection
of individual freedom. Eventually, however, Congress’s resistance weakened.
… Thus the federal budget, understood as an instrument for
fueling or defueling the growth of the administrative state, became the point
of control over which the political parties and the political branches fell to
fighting. In the 1980s, President Reagan showed that the budget process could
be used to limit spending and reduce the burden of administrative regulations.
But no one of either political party, including Reagan, has been able to
achieve a consensus or a political realignment concerning the purposes and
level of federal spending. For much of the last 50 years, an era in which
divided government has become the norm, the federal budget process, with its
taxing, spending, and regulatory authority, has become the focal point of the
American administrative state—the place where political institutions and public
bureaucracies accommodate the various interests and constituencies seeking a
share of the national wealth. (Translation – special interests, lobbyist,
corporate cronyism and corporate welfare).
… Over the last decade, Congress has not even been able to
pass the 13 or so appropriations bills that constitute a budget. As a result,
the ongoing use of Continuing Resolutions allows the bureaucracy to determine
its own needs, free from detailed control by the legislative branch. In such
circumstances, those supportive of the status quo—those in the bureaucracy,
Congress, or the executive branch, who support the expansion of the
administrative state—have become a faction on behalf of government itself.
… In an earlier time, there was widespread agreement that
political institutions should tightly control government expenditures. … This moral understanding of spending and
debt receded with the growth of the administrative state, to the point where
only the lack of resources seemed to call for any limit on public spending. And
in the last few years, even that sense of limitation has fallen away, as
supporters of the administrative state have found that printing or borrowing
money, in the absence of political constraints, can fuel almost limitless demand
for public resources on behalf of their constituencies. (i.e. – bring home some
of that Federal Government pork).
… The political transformation of Congress that occurred in
the decade following 1965 was the decisive event in this regard. That transformation
has been so complete that it is difficult for us to remember today how Congress
used to work, and what were the expectations concerning its role, prior to that
period.
… In the course of this reorganization, individual
congressional committees and members were empowered to oversee the various
departments and agencies of the executive branch, making Congress—in the words
of political scientist Morris Fiorina in 1977—the “keystone of the Washington
establishment.” Under the Constitution, the separation of powers and the
politics of federalism had inhibited Washington from achieving such
centralization of power. Progressive intellectuals had criticized the
Constitution and advanced the doctrine of the administrative state, and the New
Deal had attempted to put Progressive theory into practice. But the
administrative state was not institutionalized within the framework of American
politics until Congress reorganized itself in the late 1960s and early ’70s,
fundamentally altering the separation of powers and the federal system.
… Once the characteristic activity of the federal government
became the regulation or administration of the details of the social,
political, and economic life of the nation, organized special interests and
their ties to the legislature and the bureaucracies were strengthened.
… The function of the judiciary was transformed as well: In
the administrative state, the bureaucracy has no constitutional authority, but
it is given enormous power by the political branches. Consequently, the courts
have been required to enter the policymaking arena, as the final arbiters in
the adjudication of cases arising in the administrative process.
… In summary, Congress has become a major player in the
administrative state precisely by surrendering its constitutional purpose and
ceasing to defend limited government. As a result, the administrative state has
grown dramatically since 1965, and it only continues to defend and expand its
turf. Political opposition occasionally arises in the White House or in
Congress, but thus far with little effect.
… Despite its expansion under both parties, however, the
administrative state has not attained legitimacy. The Constitution itself
remains the source of authority for those in and out of government who oppose
the administrative state, and a stumbling block to those who support it. Until
either the administrative state or the Constitution is definitively
delegitimized, the battle within both government and the electorate over the
size and scope of the federal government— including government shutdowns and
showdowns over the debt limit—will inevitably continue.
Ironic Quote regarding the Great Society!
"The purpose of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 is
to offer opportunity, not an opiate. . . . We are not content to accept the
endless growth of relief rolls or welfare rolls."--President Lyndon B.
Johnson
Links, Sources
& Resources
This book is an excellent intellectual guide to the
remarkable things Lyndon Johnson did to change the institutional structure of
American society. It explains the changing role of Congress in interfering in
executive branch decisions. It explains the breakdown in respect for authority that
led to mistrust of government as government was being entrusted with ever
larger responsibilities. It provides new insights into the political and social
thrust of Johnson's anti-poverty programs as they tried to reach around
unresponsive state and local governments. And, especially, it explains - as
others have never done - the depth of Lyndon Johnson's political, economic,
social and cultural philosophies. A sometimes heavy work of intellectual study
and inquiry, it is nevertheless well worth the effort for those who want to
understand the political genius it takes to move American reform.
