Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T14:45:01.662Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Creating the Statutory State: The Implications of a Rule of Law Standard in American Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Richard F. Bensel*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University

Abstract

The rise of the modern state has been accompanied by a decline in the importance of statutory law to the operation of Western democratic governments. Two of the strongest critiques of the modern state and of this decline in statutory law have come from Friedrich Hayek and Theodore Lowi. Each has argued that only the restoration of a rule of law can ensure the continued survival of democratic societies. Their indictments of the modern state suggest a standard by which legislative policy alternatives might be evaluated. This article develops such a standard, adapted specifically for use in American politics, and uses it to analyze legislative behavior in the House of Representatives under four different presidential administrations. The development and application of the rule of law standard provides a critique of American government from the Hayek-Lowi perspective and reveals a basic incompatibility between the imposition of a rule of law and the establishment of a responsible-party government system.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blackstone, William (1899). Commentaries on the Laws of England. Chicago: Callaghan.Google Scholar
Clausen, Aage (1973). How Congressmen Decide: A Policy Focus. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly Almanac. Congressional Quarterly News Features. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Davis, Kenneth Culp (1973). Administrative Law. St. Paul: West Publishing.Google Scholar
Dicey, A. V. (1960). Law of the Constitution. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich (1960). Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich (1944). The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore (1979). The End of Liberalism. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Ranney, Austin (1975). Curing the Mischiefs of Faction: Party Reform in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.