Word: burnham
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WHAT brought about Congress' decline? The underlying factor, says Burnham, has been the 20th century trend toward what he calls "de mocratism"-democracy carried to the extreme of insisting that the national government must directly represent the majority will. And ultimately, democratism leads to "Caesarism," with a national election amounting to little more than a nationwide plebiscite giving a leader (Napoleon, Hitler) an "unrestricted proxy...
...says Burnham, the presidency has become "the primary democratist institution." A democratist tone was already audible in President-to-be Woodrow Wilson's pronouncement, back in 1908, that the U.S. "craves a single leader." Democratism's big thrust came in the early years of the New Deal, with Franklin Roosevelt pushing batches of White House bills through Congress and even challenging the Supreme Court in his notorious (but illfated) court-packing plan...
Harry Truman carried the trend onward with his seizure of the steel mills in April 1952. President Truman, Burnham notes, never cited any specific law for the seizure, claimed only-with precise democratist logic-that the President "represents the interest of all the people," and must "use his powers to safeguard the nation" when Congress fails to act (an argument rejected by the Supreme Court). The explanation reminds Burnham of the doctrine of Salus populi suprema lex esto (The people's welfare is the highest law), an excuse for tyranny under the Roman Caesars...
DEMOCRATISM is hostile to Congress, Burnham contends, because Congress, as the founding fathers intended, does not directly represent the majority will. What emerges from Congress is a composite of the "specific interests, goals, values, ideals and sentiments" of citizens in the various states and congressional districts. Through the slow-paced committee system that critics of Congress carp at, Congress hears all sides, compromises the conflicts, takes the interests of minorities into account, arrives at "an adjustment and balancing of needs, interests and aims...
Congress, says Burnham, is "the one major curb on the soaring executive and the unleashed bureaucracy." Rights and liberties written into law "have no practical meaning" unless there is an independent institutional power to uphold the law against the claims and encroachments of the executive power. Lacking any popular mandate, the courts are not powerful enough to withstand the executive power without Congress' help. "No Congress," he warns, "no liberty...