Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency

Description

Join us for a conversation with William G. Howell, dean of Johns Hopkins University's School of Government and Policy and co-author of Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency, in discussion with Jim Steinberg, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies.

In this timely new book, Howell and co-author Terry M. Moe trace how conservative backlash against the administrative state—beginning with Reagan's Justice Department and the Unitary Executive Theory—has fueled an increasingly radical expansion of presidential power that now threatens the foundations of American democracy. Drawing on decades of institutional history, the authors reveal how Republican presidents have diverged from traditional norms of restraint to embrace a vision of extraordinary unilateral authority, culminating in the strongman presidency we see today.