Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Calling Out the Tanks or Filling Out the Forms?
- Part I From Delegated to Constitutional Decree Authority
- Part II Constitutional Decree Authority and Conflict Between the Branches
- Part III Absence of Conflict Over Decree
- Appendix of Constitutional Provisions Regarding Decree
- References
- Index
1 - Calling Out the Tanks or Filling Out the Forms?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Calling Out the Tanks or Filling Out the Forms?
- Part I From Delegated to Constitutional Decree Authority
- Part II Constitutional Decree Authority and Conflict Between the Branches
- Part III Absence of Conflict Over Decree
- Appendix of Constitutional Provisions Regarding Decree
- References
- Index
Summary
This power to act according to discretion for the public good, without the prescription of the law and sometimes even against it, is that which is called prerogative; for since in some governments the law-making power is not always in being and is usually too numerous, and so too slow for the dispatch requisite to execution, and because, also, it is impossible to foresee and so by laws to provide for all accidents and necessities that may concern the public… therefore there is a latitude left to the executive power to do many things of choice which the laws do not prescribe.
JOHN LOCKE (1986: CH. XIV)Hear me! I am your new President. From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be… Swedish. (Murmurs in the crowd.) Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside – so we can check. Furthermore, all children under sixteen years old are now… sixteen years old.
COMANDANTE ESPÓSITO, UPON SEIZING THE PRESIDENCY OF THE TINY LATIN AMERICAN REPUBLIC OF SAN MARCOS, IN WOODY ALLEN'S 1971 FILM, BANANASINTRODUCTION
Locke's case for prerogative would surely be received favorably by Russian President Boris Yeltsin or Argentine President Carlos Menem in defense of their use of executive decree.
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- Information
- Executive Decree Authority , pp. 1 - 30Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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