Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and The Unitary Executive

Product Description

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.

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.

Review

“… 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

”
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 t