Deconstructing the Administrative State

Book excerpt: This book discusses a battle of ideologies that has lasted over a century and continues today, pitting those who defend the American Experiment and the constitutional structure against those who seek to replace that structure with one that empowers them to implement their ideas with little or no popular input. Progressives want governance by experts - bureaucrats with administrative power to make political judgments on how people must live, thereby narrowing the realm of their liberty. They expand the administrative state and create an identity of interest with Big Business. Both groups want an ever-expanding government: one motivated by power, the other by money. For its part, Big Business has set up camp on Capitol Hill, lavishly funding establishment politicians, of both parties, who rationalize the need for campaign money to the detriment of waging the good fight. Together, politicians and their cronies elbow the citizen off the policy-making stage. However, this state of affairs is kindling the passions of the constitutional structure's greatest "check" on government excess - the American people. This is a fight that can be won. Deconstructing the Administrative State offers the blueprint for victory. Emmett McGroarty is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project Foundation (APPF). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Fordham School of Law. Jane Robbins is a senior fellow at APPF. She is a graduate of Clemson University (the 2016 national football champions) and Harvard Law School. Erin Tuttle is a policy analyst at APPF and a graduate of Indiana University.