President, Prime Minister, or Constitutional Monarch?

Abstract

This paper is divided into three parts: an introduction, a brief statement on the issues of constitutional theory involved, and comments on four recent controversies involving these questions: (1) the Iran-Contra affair; (2) the Intelligence Surveillance legislation passed after the Watergate scandal, and the revisions considered by the 100th Congress; (3) the proposals to amend the War Powers Resolution of 1973; (4) and the violent political conflict about the interpretation of the ABM Treaty of 1972, which is reflected in turn in the history of the ratification of the INF Treaty. These four recent episodes are simply conspicuous and dramatic examples of a large class of statutes and practices no one has yet mapped systematically. Comparable constitutional questions arise throughout the realm of governmental activity. Some are trivial, others merely annoying, others still are intrinsically important. What is certain, however, is that the power of congress is growing, and that of the President is being leached away

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA271342

Entities

People

  • Eugene V. Rostow

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arms Control
  • Civil War
  • Congress
  • Foreign Policy
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Public Policy
  • Second World War
  • Treaties
  • United States

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design