The Unelected Lib/E: How an Unaccountable Elite Is Governing America

America is increasingly polarized around elections, but as James R. Copland explains, the unelected control much of the government apparatus that affects our lives. Congress has largely abdicated its authority. "Independent" administrative agencies churn out thousands of new regulations a year. Courts have enabled these agencies to expand their powers beyond those authorized by law and limited executive efforts to rein in the bureaucratic behemoth. No ordinary citizen today can know what is legal and what is not. Some 300,000 federal crimes exist, 98 percent of which were created by administrative action rather than Congressional lawmaking. The proliferation of rules and the severity of sanctions give enormous discretion to unelected enforcement agents--upending the rule of law. Private attorneys regulate vast swathes of conduct through lawsuits, based upon legal theories never voted upon by the people's elected representatives. A combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by the plaintiffs' bar have left the United States with the world's most expensive litigation system. Finally, state and local officials have increasingly pursued agendas to dictate the terms of national commerce. In reaching beyond their borders, these "new antifederalists" have been subjecting the citizens of Wyoming and Mississippi to the whims of the electorates of New York and San Francisco - inverting the constitutional design. In this timely new book, Manhattan Institute legal scholar Copland discusses how unelected actors have assumed control of the American republi--and where we need to go to chart a corrective course.

About the Author :
James R. Copland is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, where he has directed legal-policy research since 2003. He holds a JD and an MBA degree from Yale, as well as degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The US Chamber of Commerce has awarded his research on civil litigation, and the National Association of Corporate Directors has designated him to its "Directorship 100" list of the individuals most influential over US corporate governance. Charles Constant has been a storyteller from a young age--just ask the grammar-school teachers who had the misfortune to try to collect homework from him. His professional storytelling career began at the age of thirteen, when he became an Actor's Equity Association apprentice, and his training later continued in Chicago and London. A resident of Los Angeles, he appears on stage across the country, narrates audiobooks, and occasionally performs on television and in film.

Review :
"In this masterful history, Jim Copland shows how the law of the land became more like the law of the jungle. Who's responsible? That's the problem―Nobody. Bureaucrats and lawyers of a certain disposition use law as a weapon for extortion, beyond the control of democratically elected officials and timid judges." -- "Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense and founder of Common Good"