Beschreibung:
The theory of the unitary executive is one of the most controversial and significant constitutional doctrines of the past several decades. It holds that the U.S. president alone embodies all executive power and therefore has unlimited ability to direct the many people and institutions within the federal government's vast executive branch. It thus justifies the president's prerogative to organize the executive branch and to direct its activities, to tell executive personnel what to do and to fire them if desired, to control the flow of information, and to issue signing statements that make judgments about constitutionality and determine the extent to which laws will be implemented. In some versions, it also endorses implied or inherent powers and permits the president to completely control foreign policy and military action.
Introduction: The Theory of the Unitary Executive; 1. Nearly Two Centuries of Unitary Precedents; 2. Explicit Unitary Battles in the 1980s and 1990s; 3. The Unitary Executive in the Twenty-First Century; 4. Normative Assessment of the Unitary Executive; 5. Empirical Assessment of the Unitary Executive; Conclusion: Unitary Politics; Epilogue