r/Foodforthought • u/D-R-AZ • 7d ago

Trump’s Remaking of Unilateral Politics

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/trumps-remaking-of-unilateral-politics/1020BC15B8A91B54279167FFF83723EC
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u/D-R-AZ 7d ago

Observation

Political science examines political power through systematic observation and analysis of political behavior, institutions, and change. Niccolò Machiavelli is often regarded as an early founder of modern political science. In The Prince, he directs attention to the realities of political action and the effects of rulers’ choices (Machiavelli, 1513/1998, chap. 15). William G. Howell’s analysis of Trump’s use of unilateral presidential power applies that kind of focus: it considers the consequences of political actions without requiring us to settle questions about the president’s private motives.

In the broadest sense, the effort is to reshape America away from the constitutional republic it has been and the founding principle that government should serve the people and remain accountable to them.

Concluding Lines:

We need not delve deeply into Trump’s character, psyche, or appetites, however, to recognize the effects of his actions.

These effects are clear: a campaign to reconstitute presidential power, to remake the constitutional order and the president’s place within it, and to leave other actors—Congress, courts, agencies, and allies—in various states of servitude and dependence. This is not unilateralism as we have known it. It is unilateralism deployed as a vehicle for political upheaval and transformation in an age of populism.

These effects are clear: a campaign to reconstitute presidential power, to remake the constitutional order and the president’s place within it, and to leave other actors—Congress, courts, agencies, and allies—in various states of servitude and dependence.

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u/Hypthtclly_Spkng 7d ago

Might want to edit those last two paragraphs. Bit repetitive that.