ABSTRACT
In 1973 America was gripped by its gravest political crisis since the Civil War. The president all too often was out of control. Unbridled bureaucracies acted with the arrogance befitting their autonomy. Presidential abuse of power, though seriously worsened, had been visible for decades; the inadequacy of Congress to provide an alternative to presidential government had been shown from the close of the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century and fitfully demonstrated again thereafter; and the malaise of public opinion had appeared in the late 1960s. The new framework of government will increase the ability of politicians to bring bureaucracy as it has crystallized in America under control. The political process should be capable of registering the collective judgment of responsible politicians—who, in turn, are informed by their sense of public opinion—on the prudence and wisdom of governments.
