San Antonio College Library

Jessica Korn challenges the widespread notion that the eighteenth-century principles underlying the American separation of powers system are incompatible with the demands of twentieth-century governance. She demonstrates the continuing relevance of these principles by questioning the dominant scholarship on the legislative veto. As a short-cut through constitutional procedure invented in the 1930s and invalidated by the Supreme Court's Chadha decision...

Examines the operation of the Judicial Branch and its role in government. Shows how it interprets our laws and how it makes decisions that impact the daily lives of citizens. Also examines how it contributes to the system of checks and balances which prevents any one branch of the U.S. government from becoming too powerful.

This program explores the history and anatomy of the current political debate over the idea of shifting power and authority from the federal government to the states and individuals. The program goes back to the founding of the country and examines the split between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over how much power the federal government should have, to the present.

In this comprehensive and perceptive study, Michael Foley and John E. Owens argue that in the last three decades the ways in which Congress and the presidency operate and interact have changed in several significant respects. Adopting a distinctly institutional focus, Congress and the Presidency explains the nature of these changes and examines their consequences for the contemporary American political system. Foley and Owens direct attention to...

Discusses the growth of the power of the Supreme Court and analyzes the separation of judicial and congressional functions.

"Structured as a collection of essays by some of the nation's leading political scientists and scholars of public policy, this volume addresses the major problems facing the five core institutions of America democracy: the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the federal government, and two nongovernmental institutions that are crucial to democracy because they shape the knowledge and understanding of the citizenry--the press and the public...

Few Supreme Court decisions are as well known or loom as large in our nation's history as Marbury v. Madison. The 1803 decision is widely viewed as having established the doctrine of judicial review, which permits the Court to overturn acts of Congress that violate the Constitution; moreover, such judicial decisions are final, not subject to further appeal. Robert Clinton contends that few decisions have been more misunderstood, or misused, in the...