Political Study at EconLog

The fine folks over at EconLog are looking for help in pre-testing a survey regarding "Who in Government Has Power Over What?" by Bryan Caplan and Ilya Somin. The survey itself doesn't take very long, and poses some very interesting questions about the distribution of power among different branches, levels, and agencies of the government.

Without saying too much (after all, I don't want to spoil the survey prematurely) this consideration leads to a very unsettling question: Does the de facto distribution of power in government in any way resemble the distribution intended when it was created? This question goes well beyond what the Caplan-Somin survey explicitly mentions. Of course, it also leads to its own questions, including "Why is this so?" and "What, if anything, should be done about it?" All of these are perfectly valid and are massive undertakings in and of themselves.

If you're interested in some possible answers and even more questions, I'd recommend Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty by Professor Randy E. Barnett of Georgetown University Law Center. Barnett examines how court interpretations of a number of Constitutional clauses and amendments have significantly hindered the Constitution in its protection of liberty. Primarily his focus is on the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, among others. Barnett offers the titular "Presumption of Liberty" as the basis for a restoration of these lost protections. He also conducts a fascinating investigation of the validity and meaning of the "consent of the governed" in the first chapter, as part of the basis of his argument.