After the Rights Revolution – Reconceiving the Regulatory State - Hardcover

Sunstein, Cr

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674009088 ISBN 13: 9780674009080

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1990

Synopsis

In the twentieth century, American society has experienced a "rights revolution": a commitment by the national government to promote a healthful environment, safe products, freedom from discrimination, and other rights unknown to the founding generation. This development has profoundly affected constitutional democracy by skewing the original understanding of checks and balances, federalism, and individual rights. Cass Sunstein tells us how it is possible to interpret and reform this regulatory state regime in a way that will enhance freedom and welfare while remaining faithful to constitutional commitments.

Sunstein vigorously defends government regulation against Reaganite/Thatcherite attacks based on free-market economics and pre-New Deal principles of private right. Focusing on the important interests in clean air and water, a safe workplace, access to the air waves, and protection against discrimination, he shows that regulatory initiatives have proved far superior to an approach that relies solely on private enterprise. Sunstein grants that some regulatory regimes have failed and calls for reforms that would amount to an American perestroika: a restructuring that embraces the use of government to further democratic goals but that insists on the decentralization and productive potential of private markets.

Sunstein also proposes a theory of interpretation that courts and administrative agencies could use to secure constitutional goals and to improve the operation of regulatory programs. From this theory he seeks to develop a set of principles that would synthesize the modern regulatory state with the basic premises of the American constitutional system. Teachers of law, policymakers and political scientists, economists and historians, and a general audience interested in rights, regulation, and government will find this book an essential addition to their libraries.

About this title

Review

Over the past decade Cass Sunstein has emerged as one of the country's most prolific and provocative legal scholars. "After the Rights Revolution" is a rich discussion of how the courts have handled--and should handle--the plethora of regulatory statutes enacted since 1932. It deserves to be read widely by students of politics.--R. Shep Melnick "Political Science Quarterly " If the size and ambition of our government are not mistakes--and Sunstein makes that case well--then we need to address its works in ways that both enhance its opportunities for success, and promise restraints on its power. "After the Rights Revolution" is an important effort in that direction.--Peter L. Strauss "Michigan Law Review " "After the Rights Revolution" is a thoughtful and compelling analysis of the United States welfare state and the role of courts in modern government. Sunstein argues that it is the deliberate process of government and its potential for political actors to engage in emphatic dialogue with other participants which gives democracy its emancipatory potential.--Patrick Keyzer "Sydney Law Review " The analysis of statutory interpretation is the book's finest achievement. Sunstein launches a brilliant and devastating critique of interpretive theories which hold that interpretation should be a function solely of statutory text or legislative intent, and which reject any role for background norms or controversial public policy views.--Richard B. Stewart "California Law Review " We all need help finding our way around the American administrative state. An important guidebook has now arrived. The publication of Cass Sunstein's "After the Rights Revolution" is a significant event for those interested in administrative law and regulation, as well as for those concerned with the theory of legal interpretation.--Ronald F. Wright "Yale Law Journal " Cass Sunstein's "After the Rights Revolution" is the best attempt I have encountered to theoretically formulate a standard for the new 'rights.' Because it is so elegantly argued and so well written, it deserves considerable attention.--Alan Stone "Policy Studies Journal " This century has seen a 'rights' revolution, says [Sunstein]: In addition to their traditional freedoms, Americans now have a right to clean air and safe consumer products, for example. Moreover, he argues, these rights, indispensable in a modern industrial democracy, are better protected by government regulation than by private enterprise. Thinking of the deregulation-inspired Savings & Loan debacle, the reader may agree. Despite the many failures and even tyranny of government regulatory schemes, constitutional government and regulatory legislation are compatible, says Sunstein, who offers recommendations for improving the constitutional underpinnings of regulatory schemes and minimizing the dangers of bureaucratic government. This book gives regulatory law a legitimacy it seldom receives in American legal theory and political science.--Rex Bossert "California Lawyer " Cass Sunstein sets out not to bury regulation, but to save it--to save it from both its friends and its enemies. He seeks to make the regulatory state more legitimate and effective by creating a set of norms for judicial review of regulatory statutes and administrative actions, norms that emphasize efficiency and consistency and--most of all--democratic deliberation and equality.--Dennis J. Coyle "Law and Politics Book Review "

About the Author

Cass R. Sunstein is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674009088
• ISBN 13: 9780674009080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296