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U.S. Constitution
See other U.S. Constitution Articles

Title: Is this true?
Source: Vulture
URL Source: http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/stev ... onversation.html?src=longreads
Published: Feb 4, 2013
Author: Steven Soderbergh
Post Date: 2013-02-04 22:25:24 by Biff Tannen
Keywords: None
Views: 6539
Comments: 17

What is the efficient way to run a railroad or a government, as the case may be?

I’m of the minority opinion that presidents should be given more power for less time. Let him—no “her” yet!—put the ideas he campaigned on into play, like a new tax code, and let’s see if it works or fails, quickly. If it doesn’t, then two years later the people who said it would never work get their chance. A watered-down version of an idea isn’t a good indicator of whether it’s a good idea. I read this great book by Daniel Lazare—The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy.The Founders very clearly indicated that they had no idea what the country would be like in 100 years, and if the laws they’d written didn’t work, they should toss them out and write new ones The problem, of course, is that building or fixing things takes time. Tearing shit down is easy. The analogy I use is that if you throw a party with 40 people, it takes only one asshole to ruin the whole thing. And that’s kind of where we’re at.


Poster Comment:

The bolded part. Just wondering ...

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 10.

#9. To: Biff Tannen (#0) (Edited)

This isn't far from the way they do it in France.

In France, when there is a Presidential election and the President and newly- elected Parliament are of the same party, the Parliament traditionally votes to give the President the power to issue laws by decree for a time, 100 days or so.

The President then issues a series of laws by decree which go into effect at once. Parliament can, of course, vote to eliminate any such law, but given that this power is exercised right at the beginning of a new term, and is only granted when the President's party also controls Parliament and the Prime Ministry, that generally doesn't happen.

What this does is allow the new President to implement his entire program at once, while allowing for legislative override of any particular provision.

When people elect a new President and party to power, they do so because they want change. This system allows for that sort of change, while still preserving legislative supremacy.

The Constitutional Court always exists as a backstop to anything outrageous.

If this seems "dangerous" then Article 16 of the French Constitution would be probably be terrifying, as it allows the President to take absolute power in the time of extreme national emergency.

Americans would fear the mischief of such a possibility. But the French fear more the results of disorder in crisis in a country whose capital is only a day's drive from the German border.

President De Gaulle actually used the Emergency Power once. In 1962, the Army from Algeria tried to stage a coup. Several assassination attempts were made on him in one day (the movie "The Day of the Jackal" recounted this), and the Generals prepared to move the Army on Paris. De Gaulle survived, declared a national emergency, and informed the nation of the crisis. The enlisted men of the military took matters into their own hands, arresting the rebellious general officers.

What happened next is interesting. De Gaulle immediately put the generals on trial for treason (which what they did was), but under the legal regime as it then existed, certain military courts would have to be used. De Gaulle issued executive orders that created an entirely new court, which would try the generals under a new law, which he also issued, and impose a new death penalty for this law.

The rebel generals. through their counsel, protested to the Constitutional Court that the President was creating new courts, laws and death penalties ex post facto. The Constitutional Court ruled that Article 16 gave the President unlimited, absolute power, and that the Constitutional Court had power to advise, but no power to overrule any Presidential order issued under those circumstances. The rebellious generals were tried by the new court, found guilty under the new law, and all guillotined.

The Republic survived, and is actually the longest continuous French government since the French Revolution.

No President of France since has had occasion to declare such an emergency...but of course the French Army has not attempted a coup d'etat since 1962.

This works in France, and given French history and geography, they need a provision like that.

In the United States, Lincoln EFFECTIVELY did this during the Civil War, though there wasn't any constitutional basis for it. It'd be pretty terrifying in the hands of the current government here, given American legalism. In France, the ultimate override is that the French people themselves are explosive and go into the streets by the millions if they're pissed off about something, which is often. The French government is really AFRAID of the French people, and history gives them good reason to be. The American government is completely unafraid of the American people, and is even contemptuous of us

Vicomte13  posted on  2013-02-06   10:46:12 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: Vicomte13 (#9)

Thanks for the short history lesson.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2013-02-06   11:29:41 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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