It is now true that our political system is quite broken in many unsettling ways. Getting to unbroken from our present condition is a complex matter. Paradoxically to the actions of the current administration, we won’t get far without a competent strong administrative state, i.e. Federal agencies.
The seeds of our current discord are rooted in the earliest days of our democracy; beginning with the Decision of 1789 where Congress laid out a plan for the executive branch based upon Article II of the Constitution. This established the president as the chief of the executive branch while envisioning an administrative state to perform much of the functions of the government.
From the time of the founding of the republic there have been two contending philosophies of executive branch structure. Hamilton, who advocated for a centralized executive branch, versus the philosophy of Jefferson, who advocated for a decentralized system that pushed more of the power of decision making to local jurisdictions. Initially, Hamilton’s view predominated, but shortly, it transitioned to the Jeffersonian philosophy with the election of Andrew Jackson. From thereon, these two philosophies have continued to ebb and flow with reforms throughout the 19th, 20th and into the 21st century.
With the coming of Trump’s second administration’s revolution, it appears he brought about a shift to a kind of neo-Hamiltonian administrative state while ostensibly governing as a Jacksonian populist. In this vein, Trump is incorporating Hamiltonian Federalism, i.e., a limited executive branch, with aspects of a centralized system, pushing Hamiltonian principles to the extreme. This has brought in its wake chaos, further weakening the administrative state.
Trump believes he has the power to be the boss over the entire executive branch, relying on ‘unitary theory’ to legitimize actions taken and not yet taken; cutting programs, dissolving agencies, subverting the laws of congress, hiring and firing public officials and employees at will, including employees who work for the regulatory and independent agencies, such as the Federal Reserve board, FCC, EPA, etc.
Many constitutional scholars feel that unitary executive theory is not on solid ground. Testing the validity of the theory is an essential consideration still to be decided by the judiciary, likely the Supreme Court. Stay tuned.
Now enter DOGE.
DOGE’s raison d’etre is to streamline the executive branch, however we have seen the devastating results of its actions to the administrative state so far.
What can we do as UU’s now?
Resist, yes. Disrupt, yes. Identify advocacy issues, i.e., immigration, climate, health and economic inequities, income inequality. But what is most needed now is citizen participation in executive branch oversight, and there is a ready path for this.
The House Sub-committee on Government Efficiency, comprised of 7 Republican and 6 Democratic members is charged with overseeing work toward government efficiency, including oversight of DOGE. This sub-committee is empowered to suggest bills and policy and send on to the full house committee for vote and implementation.
Suggested Actions
- Follow the work of the House Sub-committee on Government Efficiency.
- Write to sub-committee members letting them know there is support for the work they are doing.
- Let them know what is important to you.
- Pay attention to reporting on unitary executive theory to develop your ideas about it.
Hamilton and Jefferson both contributed valid approaches to managing the executive branch. But throughout our American experience we have found that one approach alone does not work and we have yet to identify an optimal balance or develop an alternate philosophy for efficient and effective governance.
What is essential now is to advocate for a functioning administrative state. Without it, all efforts at effective governance will likely be ineffective, possibly disastrous.
Kenneth Mitchell volunteers with the Democracy Action Team at UUSJ. He has also been a professor of political science, teaching courses in public policy and public administration. He has also been a management consultant to numerous federal agencies for projects on strategy and policy implementation. He is a member of First Unitarian Church in Baltimore, Maryland.