The 'Administrative State' and Its Critics

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors only. In American politics today one hears many attacks on the "administrative state" and the "deep state." Americans have never been comfortable with centralized bureaucracies, yet they expect public agencies to provide them with a wide variety of benefits, services, and protections. As a result, our "administrative state" is constantly in crisis. This course examines fundamental features of public bureaucracies, the huge differences among them, the conflicting demands we place on them, how federalism and separation of powers creates a peculiarly American administrative apparatus, changing standards of judicial review of administrative action, methods for improving administrative performance, and the consequences of the Trump administrations effort to reduce the size and authority of federal agencies.