The LawConnecting Presidential Power to Public Law

Abstract

When political science developed in the United States in the 1880s, the study of politics incorporated public law. Upon its founding in 1903, the American Political Science Association linked the discipline of government studies to law. Presidential scholar Edward S. Corwin was regularly invited to testify before Congress on constitutional matters, as were other political scientists. By 1963, however, behavioral studies topped the list of fields in which significant work was being done. Located at the bottom was public law. Presidential scholars, giving little attention to legal and constitutional analysis, generally promoted broad trust in presidential power with few checks. That orientation has been rejected by a number of political scientists who remain committed to public law. Part of the political science discipline remains divorced from legal analysis.

The LawPresidential Studies, Behavioralism, and Public Law

“…Neustadt's decision to divorce the Constitution from the study of the chief executive was not unique in the field of presidential studies (Fisher , ). Indeed, his thesis was compatible with the behavioralism bent of the political science profession and the general faith that presidential scholars put into the presidency, particularly from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to John F. Kennedy (JFK).…”

“…Other works began to appear, including Richard Pious's The American Presidency (1979); Joseph Bessette and Jeffrey Tulis's edited volume titled The Presidency in the Constitutional Order (1981); Christopher Pyle and Richard Pious's The President, Congress, and the Constitution (1984); and Robert Spitzer's The Presidential Veto (1988). In his recent article, Louis Fisher provides a rather thorough listing of contemporary scholars who “place executive power within the framework of the Constitution, law, and checks and balances” (Fisher , 167).…”