scholarly journals The Fourth Branch of Government: How Direct Democracy is Altering the Structure of State Governments

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Thomas Helgerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
Set Up

This paper aims to explore how direct democracy (i.e. the initiative and referendum) affect the balance of power in state governments. Traditionally, like the federal government, state governments consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Due to a complex system of checks and balances, one branch cannot become too powerful, adhering to an anti-monarchy sentiment of the founders of the United States. In this set-up, the legislative branch is responsible for creating policy, the executive branch is responsible for implementing it, and the judicial branch is responsible for interpreting it. My thesis is that direct democracy, by allowing the populous to directly implement policy without bearing the responsibility for their actions as politicians do, undermines the legislative branch and therefore representative democracy itself, leading to irresponsible legislation that is not subject to the scrutiny of the United States political process.

Politics, economics, and U.S. participation in multilateral development banks

1982 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Schoultz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Major Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Multilateral Development Banks ◽  
Procedural Change ◽  
Development Banks ◽  
The U.S

In the 1970s the U.S. executive branch was forced to make a significant change in the procedure it uses to influence decisions by the multilateral development banks. This procedural change—from exclusive reliance on behind-the-scenes pressure to open voting in bank councils—reflects two more fundamental alterations: the relative diminution of U.S. power in bank councils and, especially, the development of increased congressional interest in formulating U.S. policy toward the banks. As a result of these two changes, the United States has identified publicly many of the policies it seeks to promote through the banks. Taken as a whole, the U.S. voting record indicates an abandonment of the verbal commitment to the liberal concept of maintaining the banks as apolitical financial institutions. Since the concept has never been a reliable guide to U.S. behavior in bank councils, its abandonment does not signify a major change in the relationship between the banks and the United States government. Rather, it signifies an opening of the U.S. political process, one that encourages public debate and multiple advocacy in the making of U.S. policy toward the banks.

scholarly journals Climate Policy and the United States System of Divided Powers: Dealing with Carbon Leakage and Regulatory Linkage

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Farber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Carbon Leakage ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
State Governments

AbstractClimate change has pushed governmental authorities within the United States (US) into new routes of national and transnational policy-making. The normal route for national policy-making runs from Congress in setting policy, to the President in agency implementation, to judicial oversight and enforcement. When that route is blocked, however, federalism and the separation of powers provide some byways and detours that may still be used to make progress. State governments and the executive branch have moved into the breach left by congressional deadlock. In the absence of federal climate legislation or a formal treaty, however, constitutional challenges will predictably meet efforts to limit carbon leakage or to establish linkages between regulatory systems.These constitutional issues often involve corners of constitutional law such as foreign affairs, where doctrines are particularly murky. Solid arguments can be made in favour of state efforts to avoid leakage and create linkage, despite claims of discrimination against interstate commerce, extraterritoriality, and foreign affairs pre-emption. The Environmental Protection Agency has some statutory authority to deal with leakage, and the President seems to have authority to pursue linkage through executive agreement. Thus, both states and the executive branch should have room to deal with transboundary implications of climate policies. Although the deadlock in Congress regarding climate change may be unusually severe, these modes of response may also be important for other kinds of transnational activity by US state governments and the national executive.

scholarly journals The Kyoto Protocol and the JUSCANNZ/Umbrella Group Countries - Party and Political System-Conditioned Determinants

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Gnaś
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Greenhouse Gases Emissions ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
The Look ◽  
Umbrella Group

AbstractGlobal Warming and the Kyoto Protocol are tssues that raise many controverts. This matter is especially visible in the countries which formed the JUSCANNZ, later renamed the Umbrella Group, which is an alliance in the climate negotiations process that consists of non-European Union developed states that - above all - oppose new greenhouse gases emissions reductions commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol itself and the aforementioned commitments were and still are the sources of conflicts on the international and country levels. On the country level these conflicts are highly noticeable in four Umbrella Group countries: United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and they occurred on various levels in regard to the Kyoto Protocol: negotiation (case of the United States), ratification (cases of the United States and Australia), implementation (cases of the Australia and New Zealand) and a level that can be called a “withdrawal" level (case of Canada). All these conflicts were caused by differences in main political parties' positions towards the Kyoto Protocol and/or by differences in the look on that matter presented by the legislative branch and the executive branch. In this article the abovementioned issues will be examined.

United by Land

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Mexican War ◽  
Land Grants ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The U.S

After the U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848), the newly created treaty citizens largely remained in the United States. Treaty citizens were tied to the land by occupation, and for the elite, by ownership of ranches and farms. Some chose to cross the border into Mexico in an attempt to retain their language and other cultural customs. Most treaty citizens resided in New Mexico where they remained the overwhelming majority of the settler community who precariously secured the territory for the United States over autonomous Indians. California’s treaty citizens, by contrast, encountered a swift attack on their land claims through the 1851 Gwin Act, which set up a system to verify Spanish and Mexican land grants. Treaty citizens’ use of the Spanish language often led to the loss of their land and disrespect from new Anglo settlers. The struggle to retain land in the U.S. Southwest facilitated elite treaty citizensinvestment into the territorial and state governments of the United States, which required concessions to their use of the Spanish language.

scholarly journals An Attack on the Separation of Powers? Strategic Climate Litigation in the Eyes of U.S. Judges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8335
Author(s):  
Jasmina Nedevska
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Research Plan

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool as societies steer towards sustainable development. Although the litigation mainly takes place in domestic courts, the implications can be seen as global as specific climate rulings influence courts across national borders. However, while the phenomenon of judicialization is well-known in the social sciences, relatively few have studied issues of legitimacy that arise as climate politics move into courts. A comparatively large part of climate cases have appeared in the United States. This article presents a research plan for a study of judges’ opinions and dissents in the United States, regarding the justiciability of strategic climate cases. The purpose is to empirically study how judges navigate a perceived normative conflict—between the litigation and an overarching ideal of separation of powers—in a system marked by checks and balances.

India and Vietnam in the Indo-Pacific

2021 ◽  
pp. 097492842110049
Author(s):  
Sanjay Pulipaka ◽  
Libni Garg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Order ◽  
Territorial Aggression ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Power Shift ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Common Position ◽  
Foreign Policy Strategies

The international order today is characterised by power shift and increasing multipolarity. Countries such as India and Vietnam are working to consolidate the evolving multipolarity in the Indo-Pacific. The article maps the convergences in the Indian and Vietnamese foreign policy strategies and in their approaches to the Indo-Pacific. Both countries confront similar security challenges, such as creeping territorial aggression. Further, India and Vietnam are collaborating with the United States and Japan to maintain a favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. While Delhi and Hanoi agree on the need to reform the United Nations, there is still some distance to travel to find a common position on regional economic architectures. The India–Vietnam partnership demonstrates that nation-states will seek to define the structure of the international order and in this instance by increasing the intensity of multipolarity.

Remarks by Bert Lockwood

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 82-86
Author(s):  
Bert Lockwood ◽  
Beatrice Brickell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Justice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Southern Rhodesia

I would like to address myself to international outlaws and what domestic procedures are available to arrest their activities. While at first glance the nexus between domestic justice and international justice may seem tenuous, I wonder: Is it surprising that the same administration that is so insensate over the deprivation of the human rights of blacks in Southern Rhodesia is the same administration that proclaimed early in its tenure that if you have seen one slum you have pretty much seen them all, and hasn’t visited another since? Is it surprising that the same administration that evidences so little concern over the political rights of the majority in Rhodesia is the same administration that “bugs” and sabotages the political process within the United States?

Organization of the Executive Branch of the National Government of the United States: Changes between October 1, 1939, and April 11, 1940

1940 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-518
Author(s):  
L. F. Schmeckebier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
National Government ◽  
Executive Order ◽  
Reorganization Plan

As in previous lists, mention is here confined generally to units specifically authorized by law or established by the President by executive order or Reorganization Plans under general authority vested in him. Changes in units created by heads of departments or independent establishments are excluded unless of major importance.A. Reorganization Plan No. III, under authority of the act of April 3, 1939 (53 Stat. L. 561), was transmitted to Congress on April 2, 1940; it will become effective 60 calendar days thereafter; a resolution disapproving the plan was adopted by the House of Representatives, but was rejected by the Senate. The changes made by this plan are as follows:Administrator of Civil Aëronautics. The designation of the Administrator of the Civil Aëronautics Authority is changed to Administrator of Civil Aëronautics.

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