Book Review
Authors
Issue Date
1980
Type
Journal Article
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Abstract
FIRST PARAGRAPH(S)|The central motif of Freedman's book is the argument that the administrative process has been plagued by the recurrence of crisis. Each crisis is characterized by the sense that the process is fundamentally flawed, because of a series of unresolved questions about whether or not the process plays a legitimate role in the political and economic scheme of American life. In the first half of the book, Freedman outlines each of these recurring doubts as to the legitimacy of the administrative process. He attempts to set each doubt to rest. In the second half of the book, he turns to questions of procedure. The union between the questions of procedure and the crisis of legitimacy is built out of the thesis that the administrative process, though neither constitutionally established nor directly responsive to the electorate, may be legitimated by the fairness of its decisional processes. |Freedman's first source of crisis is the departure of the independent administrative agencies from the separation of powers system of the Constitution. Here Freedman juxtaposes a simplistic civics-book model of the separation of powers with the more flexible model that he attributes to the constitutional draftsman. The simplistic model sees a rigid structure of separation, while the more sophisticated model is based less upon structural design than upon a principle "that caution[s] against excessive and unwise concentrations of power but [does] not preclude one branch of government from participating in functions assigned primarily to another."...
Description
Citation
13 Creighton L. Rev. 1045 (1979-1980)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law