The Fettered Presidency: Legal Constraints On The Executive Branch

Thirty-one papers and comments produced for an American Enterprise conference in 1988 and comprising a mutual concern over the perceived injuries to executive capacity at the hands of an unwieldy and irresponsible Congress. The dominant tone is one of regret that even the Reagan Administration-in which many of the contributors served (e.g., Weinberger, Sofaer, Perle, Kirkpatrick, Abrams)-finally fell "victim to the mysterious political curse that had brought down each of its predecessors of the two previous decades." Defenders of Congress will find here a rich compendium of the views of their opponents.